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SEOUL: South Korea's foreign ministry violated regulations and granted special favours in hiring the daughter of the minister in charge, state auditors said Monday.
Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan Saturday offered to quit after being accused of nepotism over the controversial hiring last week of his 35-year-old daughter for a mid-level post.
Officials said Monday President Lee Myung-Bak would accept the resignation.
Yu was the fourth official in a week to offer to resign over ethical questions, dealing yet another political blow to Lee.
"We confirmed that the foreign ministry knew in advance that Yu's daughter had applied and violated rules to have her hired," the home ministry said Monday in a statement after a probe by its auditors.
The foreign ministry violated rules in forming a five-member interview panel including two senior ministry officials and three outsiders, it said.
The two ministry officials gave Yu's daughter near-perfect scores while three interviewers gave other applicants more points, it said, adding some foreign ministry officials made comments favouring the daughter during application reviews.
In a statement Monday, Yu, who entered foreign service in 1973, apologised again for causing trouble to his ministry and colleagues, his office said.
"Various pending diplomatic issues and heavy tasks are piled up before us," he said, urging ministry officials to handle them well by uniting around the first and second vice foreign ministers.
First Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-Soo will serve as acting minister.
"In particular, I hope you will make efforts to make the G20 summit a success," Yu said.
His departure comes at an awkward time, as South Korea prepares to host world leaders in November. Relations with North Korea are also tense after Seoul accused its neighbour of a deadly attack on a South Korean warship.
"In the past, the (Yu) case could have been dismissed as a longstanding practice," Lee said Sunday. "By the fair society standards, however, the scandal cannot be acceptable."
Lee, a former construction executive who is midway through his five-year term, presented a "fair society" of equal opportunity as his new vision after carrying out a cabinet reshuffle last month.
But his nominees for prime minister and two other cabinet members stepped down on August 29 after they were accused of unethical behaviour during parliamentary confirmation hearings.
The foreign ministry said it would make "bone-crushing efforts" to regain public trust.
"We take this situation very gravely and will take all necessary steps to ensure transparency and fairness in our human resource policy," spokesman Kim Young-Sun told reporters Monday.
The home ministry said it was investigating seven other children of senior diplomats who were recently hired by the foreign ministry.
-AFP/wk
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