South Korea's Kim Jong-yang was elected as the President of Interpol on Wednesday, the organization announced on its official Twitter account.

Kim once served as Chief of Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency from 2014 to 2015. His win means he secured at least two-thirds of the votes cast at Interpol's general assembly in Dubai on Wednesday.

Alexander Prokopchuk, a former Russian interior ministry official, had been expected to be elected president, but his nomination was criticized heavily by the U.S.

On Monday, a group of U.S. senators released a letter saying the election of Prokopchuk would be "akin to putting a fox in charge of a henhouse." They argued that Russia would exploit Interpol's power to meet its own political ends.

Kim will serve as president for the remainder of the current mandate, until 2020.

(Top image: Kim Jong-yang, the new president of Interpol, talks during the 87th General Assembly in Dubai, UAE, November 21, 2018. /Reuters Photo)