Ukraine welcomes Kim Jong Yang's election as Interpol president

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry welcomes Kim Jong Yang's election as Interpol's next president and promises to support his efforts to strengthen the credibility of this mechanism of law enforcement cooperation, the ministry's press service has reported.

According to the report, since Russia has made an attempt to gain control over Interpol, having nominated its candidate for the position of head of this organization, "Ukrainian diplomats, our national police have conducted an active campaign with partner countries."

Its purpose was to prevent the realization of the Russian Federation's plans to use this authoritative international organization for even more extensive interference, sabotage, undermining the international community's efforts to achieve Interpol's statutory goals, as well as to implement plans of Russian special services in the territory of foreign countries, the ministry said.

"This situation has once again highlighted the importance of strengthening the interaction of democratic countries at all multilateral platforms for the purposes of preventing the use of international organizations for the implementation of Moscow's unfair and aggressive plans," reads the report.

South Korean Kim Jong Yang was elected Interpol president on November 21.

He served as acting head of the organization after its former chief, Meng Hongwei, resigned after his arrest in China on October 7.

In addition to Kim, another nominee for the post of Interpol chief was Russian representative Alexander Prokopchuk, who has been vice-president of the organization since 2016.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine might suspend its membership in the organization if a Russian representative were elected Interpol president.