U.N. Urges Against Commercial Use of Ban’s Name

The United Nations urged Koreans not to use Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon`s name in commercial activities and asked for the suspension of some of the events, after judging that such usage has crossed the permissible line.

A high-ranking U.N. official said Thursday that the international organization has made an oral request to a large bookstore to discontinue the “Essay Contest for Ban Ki-moon Scholarship.” The official said that the U.N. headquarters plans to take official action to suspend the event in case the host refuses to follow the request. The official also added, “In the future, any events or commercial marketing using Secretary-General Ban’s name will be prohibited without official consultations with the United Nations.”

In addition, the official pointed out, “Even though Secretary-General Ban has neither taken an interview for book publishing nor permitted any publication, a considerable number of publishers are advertising as if their books were written directly by him.”

higgledy@donga.com