South Korea’s Kim Quits as IOC Vice President

Kim Un Yong, a South Korean International Olympic Committee vice president who had been one of the leading voices of the Olympic movement in Asia, resigned from the IOC Friday, in the wake of his conviction last year in Seoul on corruption charges.

The surprise resignation averts an expulsion vote, which had been scheduled at the IOC’s next general assembly, in Singapore in July. The IOC’s ruling executive board had recommended Kim’s expulsion because he had “seriously tarnished” the “reputation of the Olympic movement.”

South Korean officials also had been pressing for Kim’s resignation so the nation’s bid for the 2014 Winter Games, for the city of Pyeongchang, could move forward. Two years ago, Pyeongchang narrowly lost the 2010 Games to Vancouver. The IOC announced in a statement that Kim, 74, had tendered his resignation in a letter dated May 9 and received Friday at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

An IOC member since 1986, Kim played a key role in organizing the 1988 Seoul Summer Games and helped get taekwondo accepted as a medal sport.

He drew a “most serious” warning in connection with the scandal surrounding Salt Lake City’s winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games but was elected in 2003 to a new four-year vice presidency. Last January, however, he was suspended from all his IOC privileges after his arrest in South Korea. He was convicted last June of embezzling from the World Taekwondo Federation and other entities. The country’s Supreme Court upheld his conviction Jan. 14.