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DUBAI. – Interpol has elected Kim Jong-yang of South Korea as its new president, according to the international police body.
Jong-yang, who had been serving as acting president, was elected for a two-year term at the body’s annual congress in Dubai on Wednesday, finishing the four-year term of his predecessor who was arrested in Chinathis year.
“Our world is now facing unprecedented changes which present huge challenges to public security and safety,” Jong-yang told Interpol’s general assembly, according to the agency’s Twitter handle.
“To overcome them, we need a clear vision: we need to build a bridge to the future.”
Jong-yang (57), worked in the South Korean police for more than 20 years before retiring in 2015.
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in congratulated Jong-yang on becoming the first South Korean to head the organisation.
“We’re very proud. I, together with our people, am sending congratulations,” Jae-in wrote on Twitter.
The South Korean’s election is a blow to Moscow’s efforts to reserve the position for a Russian candidate, Alexander Prokopchuk.
Following the vote on Wednesday, the Kremlin said that clear outside pressure had been exerted on the election, but that it did not see any factors that would render the process illegitimate, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
Interpol is best known for issuing “red notices” that identify a suspect pursued by a country, effectively putting him or her on the world’s “most-wanted” list.
William Browder, a British fund manager critical of the Kremlin who has been arrested repeatedly at Russia’s behest before being released again, told BBC radio in London: “[Prokopchuk] has been responsible for trying to chase me down and have Interpol arrest me seven times.”
The election of Jong-yang comes following former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei’s resignation after he was arrested in China in September on bribery and corruption charges.
Meng had disappeared in China for 13 days before his arrest was made public in October.
China’s Ministry of Public Security said that Meng’s suspected corruption and violation of laws “gravely jeopardised” the ruling party and the police, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.
Authorities also said Meng was in this situation due to his own “willfulness and for bringing trouble upon himself”.
France, which hosts Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, received Meng’s resignation as president of Interpol with immediate effect. – News agencies
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