Shin Young-Soo of South Korea was elected as the new director for the Western Pacific region of the World Health Organization, the UN body announced.
Shin, 64, a professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine, will serve a five-year term that begins February 1, 2009. He replaces Japan's Shigeru Omi, who is winding up his second five-year term.
The WHO's Western Pacific office covers 37 countries and territories, including China and the rest of East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Pacific island countries and some parts of Southeast Asia.