Psy Demotes UN Chief to 2nd Most Famous Korean

UN Style: A pair of Koreans rock a UN press conference like never before.

Rapper Psy demoted UN chief Ban Ki-moon from the world’s most famous Korean to the second most famous — but made up for it by giving Ban a private lesson on the “Gangnam Style” horse dance.

Psy aka Park Jae-sang visited General Secretary Ban at the UN headquarters in Manhattan Tuesday to deliver a 7 billion won ($6.6 mil.) donation to UNICEF on behalf of Korea’s Asiana Airlines. The visit was accompanied by a large media contingent that set flashes popping as the two Koreans met for the first time, exchanging greetings in Korean, then in English.

“What a big crowd you have,” Ban told Psy. “I’ve never seen this big of a crowd.”

“So now you have the first and second most famous Koreans in the same building,” Psy joked as the pair posed for photographers.

“I’m a bit jealous,” Ban confessed after the greeting photo ritual was out of the way. “Until two days ago someone told me I am the most famous Korean in the world. Now I have to relinquish the title to you. But I have no regrets. I sincerely hope that there will be hundreds and many more popular Koreans in the world,” he added.

“I have seen you dance and I hear that you are here to see me dance, but don’t worry, I cannot even imitate your movement. I was watching you teaching all these celebrities.”

Psy took Ban under his personal tutelage. Everyone had a good laugh as the UN General Secretary tried to mimic the Unicef goodwill ambassador’s dance moves.

Ban told Psy he was proud of him. He had watched the “Gangnam Style” video and was dumbfounded to see that it had racked up over 530 million views, Ban added.

“Unbelievable. Unbelievable, really,” said Psy, apparently touched by Ban’s words. “This is a much better feeling than when I hit No. 2 on Billboard.

“For all the Koreans, he is the guy, you know. In everyone’s heart in Korea, [he’s] the best among the best. To be here and [to hear him say that] he knows me, [it] is so touching. He’s saying he saw my video. He even counted my video views!”

“You are so cool, I hope you can end global warming,” replied Ban.

“He’s so energetic, he can help end the energy crisis too,” Ban added. “He’s like a one-man democracy!”

Ban, who had served as S. Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, took office as UN General Secretary on January 1, 2007. He was unanimously reelected to a second term which will end on December 31, 2016.

Psy has been number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for the past four weeks, just below Maroon 5. He has ranged between number 1 and 3 on the iTunes US singles chart for the past month. For the past four weeks he has been number 1 on the Billboard Social 50 which measures the level of interest generated by artists on Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites.

Psy has said that the next song he releases will be in English but that he and manager Scooter Braun have decided against releasing an English version of “Gangnam Style”, the viral hit that ended his relative obscurity as a second-tier K-pop artist who had been in hiatus for two years before posting the video on YouTube on July 14.