South Korean president’s chief of staff offers to resign — Daily Maverick

In South Korea, Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to President Lee Jae-myung, has offered to resign. The presidential administration reported this on Monday after several weeks of declining approval ratings for the head of state.

No decision from the president yet

Later on Monday, Lee Jae-myung said he had not yet decided whether to accept Kang’s resignation.

Criticism of personnel appointments

According to Daily Maverick, citing Yonhap, Kang offered to resign in order to take overall responsibility as the president’s chief aide. At a press conference last week, Lee acknowledged that public concerns about his administration reflected his own shortcomings.

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The resignation was preceded by criticism of personnel appointments, including the withdrawal of the nominations of Yoon Hye-in and Kim Seung-won, who had been nominated for the positions of minister of gender equality and family and minister of justice, respectively. The decline in support for the president was partly linked to unsuccessful ministerial nominations.

At the same time, Lee’s approval rating in a Realmeter poll released on Monday rose by one percentage point to 34.8%. This was the first increase in the figure in ten weeks.