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SEOUL: South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak will later Friday sack all his top aides in the wake of the US beef import row which has rocked his fledgling administration, officials said.
Lee will replace chief of staff Yu Woo-Ik and all six senior presidential secretaries, said presidential spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan. He will introduce the new appointees in a live television broadcast at 6 pm (0900 GMT).
After a nightmare month of mass protests against a resumption of US beef imports as well as labour unrest, the embattled president finally appeared to be getting some good news.
The United States and South Korea said they were close to agreement following lengthy talks in Washington on Seoul's demands for extra safeguards on beef imports.
And truckers who have crippled ports with a strike in protest at high fuel prices were going back to work after securing fee rises.
Lee's conservative government, eager to clear the way for a wider free trade deal, agreed in April to lift most restrictions on lucrative US beef imports which were suspended in 2003 after a mad cow disease case in the US.
The deal, and the hasty way it was reached, sparked an unanticipated wave of mass street protests fuelled by fears of mad cow disease and other grievances against the four-month-old conservative government.
The pact to resume imports has not yet gone into effect because of the protests, even though both governments say the meat is totally safe.
Lee, making his second televised apology in a month, vowed Thursday to secure US government guarantees of a ban on exports of older cattle, seen as potentially more at risk of disease.
All top presidential secretaries and the entire cabinet had offered to quit earlier this month to let Lee make what he called a "fresh start."
He will announce a cabinet reshuffle later this month but has indicated it will be less extensive than the secretarial shake-up.
Lee, a hard-driving former business executive, on Thursday also promised to drop an unpopular cross-country canal plan if people do not want it.
"I should have paid attention to what people want," he said. "I and my government will acutely reflect on this." - AFP/ac
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