Former Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha Announces Candidacy for ILO Director-General... First Korean to Challenge

Former Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha Photo by Ewha Womans University

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] Former Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is running for the position of Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), a United Nations specialized agency. This is the first time a Korean has challenged for the ILO Director-General position.

On the 1st, the government announced that former Minister Kang had officially declared her candidacy for the next ILO Director-General position. On the same day, the government submitted Kang's candidacy registration documents to the ILO Secretariat through its Geneva mission. The ILO Director-General is elected through a process that begins with candidate registration, followed by election campaigns and official hearings, and concludes with a vote.

By the final day of the candidate registration period, candidates from four other countries?South Africa, Togo, France, and Australia?had also registered, one from each country.

The ILO, a tripartite organization involving labor, management, and government, elects the Director-General by majority vote in its board of 56 members, consisting of 28 government representatives, 14 worker representatives, and 14 employer representatives.

The government plans to form an inter-ministerial task force (TF) including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Employment and Labor to support former Minister Kang's candidacy activities. If elected, Kang will become the first Asian Director-General of the ILO and the first female Director-General in the organization's history.

Established in 1919 to protect the rights of workers worldwide, the ILO currently has 187 member countries. South Korea joined the ILO in 1991.

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