Interpol has elected Kim Jong Yang of South Korea as its next president, the international police body said on Twitter.
Kim, who had been serving as acting president, was elected for a two-year term at the body’s annual congress in Dubai.
The South Korean’s election is a blow to Moscow’s efforts to reserve the position for a Russian candidate, who was strongly opposed by the US, Britain and other European nations.
The election of Kim comes after former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei resigned after he was detained in China in September on bribery and corruption charges.
Meng 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 headquaters in Lyon, received Meng’s resignation as president of Interpol with immediate effect, according to the international police agency.
Meng’s wife, Grace, said her husband sent her an image of a knife before he disappeared during a trip to their native China.
Making her first public comments on the issue, Grace Meng told reporters in Lyon that she thought the knife was her husband’s way of trying to tell her he was in danger.
She said she has had no further contact with him since the message that was sent on September 25. Grace also said four minutes before Meng shared the image, he had sent a message saying: “Wait for my call.”
She read a statement during her press conference in Lyon, but would not allow reporters to show her face, saying she feared for her own safety and the safety of her two children.
Meng is a senior Chinese security official as well as president of the International Criminal Police Organisation.
