U.N. council officially chooses South Korean

UNITED NATIONS – South Korea’s foreign minister was officially nominated Monday as the next U.N. secretary-general, and he pledged to work to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis hours after the communist regime announced it had tested a nuclear weapon.

“This should be a moment of joy. But instead, I stand here with a very heavy heart,” Ban Ki-Moon said in Seoul, South Korea. “Despite the concerted warning from the international community, North Korea has gone ahead with a nuclear test.”

Ban was nominated by the U.N. Security Council to succeed Kofi Annan, whose term expires at the end of the year. He faces likely confirmation by the U.N. General Assembly.

Under the U.N. Charter, the 15-member Security Council makes a recommendation for the next secretary-general to the 192-member General Assembly, which must give final approval.

Ban called North Korea’s reported nuclear test an “act of provocation” and “a grave and direct threat to the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.”

South Korea will “be firm and resolute in adhering to the principle of no tolerance of a nuclear North Korea,” he added.