S. Korea steps up bid for seat at int'l sea tribunal

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Jan. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo will
head to New York later Thursday with two main goals, to attend an International
Criminal Court forum and to rally support for his country's candidate ahead of an
international maritime tribunal election.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), an intergovernmental
organization created by the United Nations, has a judicial post vacant after Park
Choon-ho, a South Korean scholar, died of cancer in November last year. Park had
served as a judge at the tribunal since 1996.
South Korea has chosen Paik Jin-hyun, a Seoul National University professor, as
its candidate to succeed Park. The U.N. election is slated for March 6.
Paik, who earned a doctorate at Britain's Cambridge University, is known for his
expertise in international law. He practiced law in New York and was a researcher
at an international law academy in the Hague in the 1980s.
South Korean officials had been confident that Paik would be elected until
Indonesia fielded a strong rival candidate, Nugroho Wisnumurti, Jakarta's
permanent representative to the United Nations.
"We can't be too optimistic about the results of the election," said Hwang
Seung-hyun, head of the South Korean foreign ministry's treaties bureau.
The ITLOS has 21 judges with Asia holding five seats. Currently, China, Japan,
India, and Lebanon have judges on the panel.
Indonesia claims the tribunal needs a representative from Southeast Asia,
according to diplomatic sources here.
To win the election, a candidate must secure support from at least two-thirds of
the 158 signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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