Lawyer Baek Gibong Elected as Judge of the International Criminal Court... Third Korean to be Selected

Baek Gibong (59, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 21), a lawyer at Kim & Chang Law Office, has been elected as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a permanent war crimes tribunal under the United Nations. This is the third time a Korean has been elected as an ICC judge.

Image source=Kim & Chang

According to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations, Lawyer Baek was selected on the 6th (local time) as one of six new judges with a nine-year term at the ICC States Parties Assembly held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA. The ICC, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, is the first permanent international tribunal to prosecute individuals who have committed crimes against humanity such as genocide and war crimes. Accordingly, Lawyer Baek becomes the third Korean ICC judge following former ICC President Song Sanghyun and current judge Jeong Changho. The ICC has a total of 18 judges, and every three years, the States Parties Assembly elects six judges for a nine-year term.

In a written response submitted prior to the election, Lawyer Baek stated, "The ICC must consider not only how investigations and trials are accepted by the parties involved but also how they affect the trust and support of the international community as a whole." He added, "It would be desirable to improve institutional mechanisms such as accepting external advice and expanding deliberations to listen to diverse opinions before making important decisions."

As an expert in international criminal law, Lawyer Baek graduated from Seoul National University Law School and Columbia University School of Law (LL.M), and earned a Ph.D. in international law from Hanyang University. He served for 22 years in the prosecution, holding positions such as Director of the International Legal Affairs Division at the Ministry of Justice, Chief of the 4th Criminal Division at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, spokesperson for foreign media at the Office for the Preparation of the World Prosecutors’ Meeting at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, and Senior Legal Advisor at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Bangkok Branch. Since leaving the prosecution in 2014, he has been working as a corporate criminal lawyer at Kim & Chang Law Office until recently.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.