The IMO has started the process to elect a successor to Kitack Lim as secretary-general. The electoral process will appoint a new leader at shipping regulator in 2024.
Candidates for the top posting at the IMO must be submitted by the end of March 2023, with the election then taking place in July, aiming to have a new secretary-general by January 1, 2024.
Mr. Lim began attending IMO meetings as part of the Republic of Korea’s delegation in 1986 and 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 Chair of IMO’s Sub-Committee on Flag State Implementation (FSI – now III) in 2001 and of the Tokyo Memorandum on Port State Control in 2004.
In 2006, Mr. Lim was appointed Director General of the Maritime Safety Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) and then as a Senior Maritime Attaché at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in London and led all IMO work for the Republic of Korea, serving as an Alternate Permanent Representative to IMO up to August 2009.
Following that, he was re-appointed Director General for Maritime Safety Bureau (MLTM).
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, until January 2016 when he took up his appointment as Secretary-General of IMO.
