By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
A Korean judge has been elected to head the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world's only permanent court established to punish perpetrators committing serious crimes in the international community.
The court announced, Wednesday, that fellow judges had elected Song Sang-hyun as president in succession to current chief Philippe Kirsch of Canada.
Song will lead the court for three years alongside two vice presidents, Fatoumata Dembele Diarra from Mali and Hans-Peter Kaul from Germany.
He will be in charge of the court's overall administration, excluding affairs of the Office of the Prosecutor.
A graduate of the law department at Seoul National University (SNU), Song passed the state exam for government officials in 1962 and another exam for judicial officials the next year.
He taught students at SNU from 1972, and held posts including the head of the Korea Law Professors Association. He has been with the ICC since 2003.
The court said Song and the vice presidents were elected by an absolute majority, highly recognizing Song's academic and practical experience in court administration and criminal suits.
The ICC was created to deal with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. In 1998, 120 nations adopted the Rome Statute, the legal basis for establishing the permanent, independent court, which came into effect in 2002 following ratification by 60 countries.