Mr. Park Yong-Sung Is Named as IOC Committee Member

Mr. Park Yong-Sung (the president of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry), the chairperson of the International Judo Federation (IJF), is unofficially decided as a committee member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

IOC officially announced yesterday that it had decided, at an executive board in Lausanne, to submit the nomination of 10 new committee members including Mr. Park to the 113th general meeting during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, U.S., in February next year.

The 10 nominated people were elected from the 82 recommended persons from the world and Mr. Park was recommended as a representative of IJF by Jacques Rogge, the president of IOC.

The final decision will be made by the votes for each nominee at the general meeting and those who win the majority votes among the 126 committee members will be confirmed as committee members. However, considering that the vote at a general meeting is more like an initiation ceremony, they are virtually elected as committee members.

When Mr. Park is elected as a committee member, Korea will have 3 IOC committee members, including Kim Yong-Wun and Lee Ghun-Hee, increasing the status of Korea in the international sports.

Kim Sang-Ho hyangsan@donga.com