U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid his respects to the late former President Roh Moo-hyun in New York on Thursday morning.

The U.N. chief visited an altar for Roh set up at South Korea's consulate in New York City after returning from a visit to Sri Lanka and Europe.

Ban also conveyed his condolences to Roh’s bereaved family and the South Korean public.

After visiting the memorial, Ban, the former South Korean foreign minister under Roh, thanked the late president for working to increase South Korean diplomacy while introducing an independent, pragmatic diplomatic paradigm.