Education minister resigns after just over a month in office

Education Minister Park Soon-ae reads a prepared statement announcing her resignation at the Korea Institute of Educational Facility Safety in Yeouido, Seoul, Monday. Park decided to step down from her ministerial post amid mounting criticism against the ministry's agenda and her drunk-driving record. Yonhap

Departure stirs deep doubts over Yoon's personnel selection

By Ko Dong-hwan

Education Minister Park Soon-ae, whose appointment by President Yoon Suk-yeol last July had provoked fierce criticism from all sides for her lack of experience and history of unethical behavior, stepped down Monday. Her resignation came 34 days after she took the helm of the ministry.

During a press conference held in Seoul, Park took the blame for the latest controversies surrounding her.

"My latest policies were all for the benefit of our country's citizens," said Park at the lobby of the Korea Institute of Educational Facility Safety building in Yeouido, Seoul. "But clearly I fell short of expectations."

Park wrapped up the press conference after the announcement, putting an end to her short but turbulent ministerial tenure.

Many factors contributed to the resignation of Park, a professor of public policy at Seoul National University. But the final nail in the coffin was her drive to lower the legal age to enter elementary schools from six to five. Not only did the initiative forego any screening by lawmakers, it also aroused the massive ire of parents, educators and politicians who opposed it.

Park has become the first among Yoon's cabinet members to resign. She is also the fourth including cabinet minister nominees under the current administration.

Other causes of Park's resignation include her plan to shut down foreign language high schools which traditionally accept only top percentile middle school graduates with the highest academic performance. Allegations of plagiarism and her past drunk-driving record also did not help save her job. It had been weeks since Park became the target of fierce public criticism against her appointment and mounting pressure to resign.

President Yoon Suk-yeol talks to reporters as he arrives at Yongsan presidential office, Monday, ending his one-week vacation. Joint Press Corp

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The president initially defended his pick.

Prior to Park's appointment, Yoon said, when asked by reporters about the public's mistrust of her, "Was there ever a minister under the previous Moon Jae-in administration as great a candidate as Park?" Even when he met Park during her appointment ceremony at the presidential office in Yongsan in July, Yoon cheered her for having withstood the series of public condemnation and even encouraged her.

When he was briefed by Park at the presidential office on July 29 about the education ministry's future agenda, Yoon learned of her controversial plan to lower the legal age to enter elementary school. The prosecutor general-turned-president gave her the green light to proceed with the plan that had not even been discussed by educational experts over its feasibility.

On Monday, after returning from his one-week vacation, Yoon admitted that Park's resignation stemmed from the public's dissatisfaction with her.

"I will start re-assessing all the impending issues from the citizens' point of view from now on," he told reporters when asked if Park would be dismissed.

Observers said Yoon may have opted to accept Park's resignation amid his plummeting public approval rating that's hovering below 30 percent. They also noted that although letting one of his key aides go only days after her appointment wasn't his "style," the public now steeped with negative sentiments against his statecraft must have forced him to choose otherwise.

"A personnel reshuffle might be inevitable for President Yoon," Rep. Cho Kyung-tae from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) said in a CBS radio show on Monday. He also said it might also be necessary for Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min to resign as well because of his role in controversially reviving a supervisory bureau over the national police force under his ministry ― against the police force's almost unanimous objections ― which had existed in the country's past military regimes before democracy blossomed in the 1980s. Cho is the first politician from the PPP to have publicly admitted to necessity of sacking the two of Yoon's key aides.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) floor leader Rep. Park Hong-geun said in the party's meeting Monday that Minister Park's resignation wasn't enough to fix President Yoon's personnel-related noises. His accusation against Yoon included first lady Kim Keon-hee whose personal acquaintances, according to various reports, have been hired by the presidential office and accompanied her public activities.

"The country was even noisier while President Yoon was gone for his vacation," said Rep. Park following Minister Park's resignation. "Controversies keep coming out like a peeling onion and citizens are getting tired of it beyond angry. I strongly urge the president to normalize his administration of national affairs by seriously reshuffling the cabinet and presidential office."