Story by James Chau.

I’ve always said that one of the great privileges of being a journalist, is being able to interview some of the most fascinating personalities of our times. Over the years, I’ve spoken on camera with Robert Mugabe, Winnie Mandela and Elton John – and Nobel laureates including Kofi Annan, Muhammad Yunus and Aung Sang Suu Kyi.

But interviewing Ban Ki-moon in his last major interview as Secretary-General of the United Nations is one I will never forget.

We sat down at his official residence in Sutton Place, a ten-minute drive from the UN Headquarters on the Upper East Side of New York. The building was formerly the home of Anne Morgan, the daughter of JP Morgan and, when we visited, it was being packed-up ready for Mr. Ban’s return to South Korea.

From the start, I decided that this was not going to be an interview with the "UN Secretary-General", but hopefully a personal and intimate conversation with "Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General".

That was the reason we requested to film at his residence (the first time this has been allowed for an interview), where he would be relaxed, and away from the everyday pressures of his role and his office.

Walking into the sitting room where we were recording, I noticed right away that apart from the framed photos of his children and grandchildren, there was only one picture of him with a world leader – Pope Francis. For someone who has met almost every president and prime minister, it was revealing that he had chosen this picture with the Pope who, like Mr. Ban, is a great champion of social justice.

This was the main theme of my interview: not only Syria, the refugee crisis, and children in conflict zones – but, more widely, the values that articulate what it means to be "human" and "living with dignity". To fully connect with Mr. Ban’s insights from his ten years as Secretary-General, I knew that I had to return him to his childhood, and the earliest experiences that shaped his later leadership.

Mr. Ban was born at the cross-section of modern history in 1944: a year before the end of the Second World War, and six years before the start of the Korean War. 

He told me of the extreme poverty his own family struggled through as the archive images showed. His parents relied on food packages from UNICEF, and his country depended on UN forces to help maintain peace. As he says, he was literally a “child of the United Nations”.

Today, of course, he is the world’s top diplomat and his formative years shaped by conflict, hunger, and lack of opportunities – together with a meeting with President John F. Kennedy when he was 18 years old – proved to be his calling in life. No one can better understand the plight of the most vulnerable communities, and no one can better stand in solidarity with the people that those communities represent.

For me, the main takeaway from this interview is the blame he lays at the door of President Assad and his government for the atrocities in Syria, and why he recommends that it be referred to the International Criminal Court without delay. More long-term, he talks about the Security Council and, due to its veto model, why the way it operates needs to be re-thought quickly. But look out also for the values that have driven his work ethic – not only in his ten years as Secretary-General, but in his almost fifty years as a career diplomat.

Towards the end of our conversation, I asked him about his last day in the job on December 31, and what he will do on January 1. “I will be a free man”, he told me. 

He hasn’t committed to running for the South Korean presidency – a rumor that has been building-up over the last year – but he promised that he will work as a member of civil society, and as one of the seven billion citizens of our world.

You haven’t seen the last of him yet. 

(Photos courtesy of Ban Ki-moon and James Chau)