South Korea’s Kim Jong Yang Elected as Interpol’s New President

South Korea’s Kim Jong Yang has been elected as the new Interpol following the resignation of Meng Hongwei after he was detained in China for corruption and bribery charges.

Interpol made the announcement on Wednesday stating that Kim was elected for a term of two years by delegates during the annual congress held in Dubai.

The election of Kim comes as a relief to many European nations, the US and Britain who were against the position being held by a Russian candidate Moscow wanted to reserve.

The Western nations had expressed concerns regarding the election of Alexander Prokopchuk, the Russian candidate and the current Interpol vice president citing the likelihood of Moscow abusing the role and influence politics.

Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, supported the election of Kim urging other nations to throw their weight behind a leader with integrity.

“Nations that are part of Interpol should respect the rule of law and choose a leader with integrity. We believe Mr. Kim will be just that,” Pompeo said in an interview.

Some US senators claimed that electing Prokopchuk is likened to “putting a fox in charge of a henhouse”. In an open letter, these officials said that Russia has a habit of abusing Interpol for settling scores and harassing dissidents, journalists, and political opponents.

Harriett Baldwin, a minister of state at the British foreign office, said that London supports Kim’s election.

Russia has been on the spotlight in several occasions including the recent accusation that the country’s agents attempted to poison an ex-spy in Britain, and that it was trying to hack the global chemical weapons network.

Other countries that opposed the election of the Russian candidate include Ukraine and Lithuania, both which said they will consider pulling out of Interpol if he ever succeeded.

Russia, through Dmitry Peskov, the presidential spokesman, shunned the US senators’ open letter as a conspicuous example of an attempt to interfere in the vote. The country’s interior ministry condemned a “foreign media campaign aimed at discrediting Russia’s candidate”.

Meanwhile, the former president, Meng had disappeared in China for more than 10 days before his arrest was made public in October. He was suspected of corruption and violation of laws, which “gravely jeopardized” the country’s ruling party and the police.

Meng is also a senior security official in China and the president of the International Criminal Police Organization.