South Korea’s Kim Jong-yang was elected on Wednesday as Interpol’s next president, in a vote following the disappearance of former president Meng Hongwei in September.
Kim, who will serve a two-year term, was chosen by Interpol’s 194 members at the 87th session of the organisation’s General Assembly in Dubai.
Alexander Prokopchuk, Russia’s interior minister, was the one expected to be elected as the Interpol’s president, but Russian ambitions to head the international organisation were dashed.
The US and its European partners lobbied against Russia’s security services’ veteran, as they fear that his election would lead to further Kremlin abuses of Interpol’s red notice system.
Chinese Meng Hongwei, went missing late in September this year during a trip from France, where Interpol is based, to China. Later in October, China’s authorities said that it was investigating with Hongwei over “suspected violations of the law.”
The International Criminal Police Organisation is the world’s largest international police organization, with 194-member countries. It was established in 1923 and aims to facilitate international police cooperation even where diplomatic relations do not exist between particular countries.
