South Korean elected ICC judge
By Yi Whan-woo
Chung Chang-ho
Chung Chang-ho, who took part in the U.N.-assisted Khmer Rouge Tribunal, has been elected a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the government said Tuesday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Chung won 73 votes out of 104 during a ballot held at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
It added he was the only one who collected over two thirds of the valid votes cast by representatives of the 119 ICC member states to win a seat as stipulated by ICC regulations.
Chung, 48, was one of the 17 candidates from 17 countries for the posts of six judges whose term will end in March next year, according to the ministry.
Six of the 18 judges at the ICC are elected every three years. Each of them serves for nine years once elected.
Since August 2011, Chung served as a pre-trial judge at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a special court set up to try those responsible for the Cambodian genocide.
He will join 18 ICC judges, including another Korean, Song Sang-hyun, who was re-elected in 2012. Song has worked as an ICC judge since 2003 and became ICC president in 2009.
Korea is the only country to have more than one judge at the ICC, an international tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands, according to the government.
The news came in the wake of the U.N.’s adoption of a resolution against North Korea for its state-perpetrated human rights violations.
On Nov. 18, the U.N. Human Rights Committee requested the U.N. Security Council to refer North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the ICC, whose jurisdiction covers genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.
South Korea was among the 111 countries, including the United States, European Union member countries and Japan, that voted in favor of the motion against the tyrannical regime.
A ministry official said, “South Korea is anticipated to signal a message via the ICC against North Korea if any military provocations occur in the future.”
The ICC looked into the two North Korean attacks on the South — the sinking of naval frigate Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island — in 2010.