The International Maritime Organization (IMO) yesterday elected its new Secretary General after a close finish with only two contenders left at the end. The job went to South Korea's Lim Ki-tack, which means he will succeed Japan's Koji Sekimizu, confirms the IMO on Twitter following Tuesday's vote.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) yesterday elected its new Secretary General after a close finish with only two contenders left at the end. The job went to South Korea's Lim Ki-tack, which means he will succeed Japan's Koji Sekimizu, confirms the IMO on Twitter following Tuesday's vote.
The South Korean was initially not seen as having a serious chance of reaching the end game for the coveted job, where Director General of the Danish Maritime Authority, Andreas Nordseth, had been named a shoe-in for the job by numerous observers, and the Danish candidate campaigned extensively ahead of Tuesday's vote. On the other hand, the outcome is not a complete surprise, as Lim Ki-tack has in recent weeks been mentioned as a dark horse that could not be ignored in the weeks leading up to the vote. However, Andreas Nordseth made it to the end game and was one of the two remaining candidates in the final vote.
The vote took place during the 114th session of the 40-Member strong IMO Council, which is meeting from 29 June to 3 July 2015. The decision of the Council will be submitted to the IMO Assembly, which meets for its 29th session from 23 November-2 December 2015, for approval.
Mr. Lim is currently president of Busan Port Authority. He served as the Republic of Korea’s Deputy Permanent Representative to IMO from 2006 to 2009 and was Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Flag State Implementation (FSI) from 2002 to 2004.
And the length of the vote illustrates the close race, as it took almost four hours to elect a final winner, and people present at the vote describe the process as the most intensive and comprehensive of its kind in IMO history. One by one, the original field of six candidates was narrowed down during the voting process, and this afternoon Lim Ki-tack was last man standing.
During the vote Tuesday, the IMO Council met in the morning, and the process began with the delegations from each of the six countries with candidates presenting their particular candidate. They were three minutes each. Following this, the voting began and one candidate after the other was eliminated.
A total of six candidates campaigned for the IMO top job. In addition to Ki-tack Lim and Denmark's Andreas Nordseth, the race featured Cyprus' Andreas Chrysostomou, Russia's Vitaly Klyuev, deputy director of Russia's Ministry of Transport, and Kenya's Juvenal Shundu.
By his election, Lim Ki-tack will now be recommended for approval by the entire IMO Assembly, which is comprised of all of the IMO member countries. The Assembly will approve the council's decision at a meeting which will presumably be held on the 23rd of November and last until the 2nd of December this year.
Mr. Lim was born in Masan, Gyeongsangnam-do, one of the major port cities in the Republic of Korea. He majored in nautical science at the Korea Maritime and Ocean University (KMOU), Busan, graduating in 1977. He worked on ships as a Korean naval officer and for Sanko Shipping Co. He joined the Korea Maritime and Port Administration in 1985, while continuing with further studies at the Graduate School of Administration, Yonsei University, obtaining a Master’s Degree in 1990. He then studied maritime administration with a major in navigation at the World Maritime University (WMU), graduating with a master’s degree. Since 1995 he has attended a doctoral programme for international law at KMOU, completing course work in 1998.
Mr. Lim began attending IMO meetings as part of the delegation from the Republic of Korea in 1986, actively participating in maritime safety and environmental protection issues. From 1992, he engaged in activities to promote maritime safety through effective implementation of IMO conventions in his country and other IMO Member States in the Asian region. He was elected Chairman of the Tokyo Memorandum on Port State Control in 2004.
In 2006, Mr. Lim was appointed as Maritime Attaché, minister-counsellor at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in London and led all IMO work for the Republic of Korea, serving as Deputy Permanent Representative to IMO up to August 2009.
Mr Lim was then appointed as Director General for Maritime Safety Policy Bureau at the Headquarters of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM). He led the delegation of the Republic of Korea to the IMO Assembly in 2009.
In March 2011, Mr. Lim was appointed Commissioner of the Korean Maritime Safety Tribunal (KMST). In July 2012, he assumed the position of President of Busan Port Authority.
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