(LEAD) Former U.N. chief says biggest concern is threat to multilateralism

(ATTN: UPDATES with details; ADDS photo)

SEOUL, Nov. 20 (Yonhap) -- Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday asked the United Nations to play its role in ensuring countries can strengthen cooperation, citing the threat to multilateralism as his biggest concern.

"What makes it more serious is that the threat comes from countries that had espoused multilateralism," Ban said in a session at the Boao Forum for Asia at a Seoul hotel.

Ban's comments are widely seen as a thinly veiled criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump's "America First" policy.

At the U.N. General Assembly in September, Trump said, "We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism."

The U.S. leader continued, "We will never surrender America's sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy."

The U.S. has said it will withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement and has already pulled out of the U.N. Human Rights Council. Trump has also threatened to quit the World Trade Organization.

Ban, the chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, also vowed to make efforts to safeguard multilateralism, even though the forum is a small regional body.

The Boao Forum -- often referred to as an Asian equivalent of the Davos World Economic Forum -- is a nongovernmental international organization that hosts an annual gathering of government officials and business leaders in the region.

Until this year, the annual conference has been held in Boao in China's southern Hainan Province. It is the first time that the conference has been held in Seoul.

Also Tuesday, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said peace on the Korean Peninsula could provide a new economic impetus to both Koreas and to other Asian countries, as well as open opportunities in the region.

entropy@yna.co.kr
(END)