Ban Ki-moon (Napoleon's World)

Ban Ki-moon (born June 13, 1944) is a Korean politician and diplomat who served as the 10th President of Korea from 2012 to 2017. A career foreign service officer who served in a variety of non-political roles - including Deputy Foreign Minister, ambassador to the League of Nations, United States, Japan and France - Ban also served as Foreign Minister from 2008 to 2011 in Lee Myung-bak's cabinet. He emerged as a compromise candidate for the New Korea Party of President Lee for the 2012 elections and won comfortably over center-left candidate Moon Jae-in and centrist candidate Ahn Cheol-soo. Ban's term was defined by the Asian Spring crises that began during his initial run and Korea's response, most notably militarizing the Yalu Valley and his deportation of 200,000 Chinese refugees between 2014-2017, when the policy was suspended under the new President Ahn. Like his predecessor, Ban's focus was on improving Korea's position in the world and he worked to foster considerable new ties with the United States, to the chagrin of neighbor Japan.