South Korean diplomats on Wednesday made their final pitch for Seoul's bid to regain a seat on the U.N. Security Council.
A vote will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
South Korea is competing with Cambodia and Bhutan for the seat assigned to the Asian region. The winning nation will replace India for the 2013-2014 term. Asia has two slots for nonpermanent members on the 15-nation council. Pakistan will continue to hold a seat through 2013.
South Korea was a member of the council from 1996 to 1997.
The Seoul government has set a return to the council as one of its core foreign policy tasks this year.
Kim Bong-hyun, the deputy minister for multilateral and global affairs, flew to New York to lead South Korea's last-minute diplomatic efforts to expand support.
South Korean officials are cautiously optimistic.
Their aim is to end the vote in the first round by immediately securing support from 129 states or more, but they are also bracing for second or third rounds.
"We think there is a 50-50 chance," Kim Sook, South Korea's ambassador to the U.N., said with regard to the possibility of ending the race on the first ballot.
To be elected, a country must win votes from at least two-thirds of the U.N.'s 193 member nations.
"We believe South Korea has a good chance of winning, given its economic power and international stature," a South Korean diplomat said on the condition of anonymity.
If South Korea becomes a member of the U.N. Security Council, it will be able to use its assets to make more contributions to the international community, added the official.
"It is also expected to help efforts to deal with tensions between South and North Korea," the official said.
Still, observers would not rule out the possibility that some developing nations will back Cambodia, this year's chair of the the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Bhutan, a developing country itself.
The U.S. government refused to comment on Seoul's bid.
"As a matter of policy, we do not comment on UNSC elections," a State Department official said. (Yonhap News)
