PM Chung keeps job by default

The spokesman for South Korea's Blue House, Yoon Doo-Hyun announced on Thursday that President Park Geun-Hye had decided to reject Prime Minister Chung Hong-won's resignation, which she had previously accepted.

The prime minister had offered his resignation just over a week after the Sewol passenger ferry sank on April 16, leaving more than 300 people dead or missing. The move was seen as a way of assuaging public anger over the tragedy.

The prime minister, though, never actually left his post, as the president, when accepting his resignation, had asked him to remain in the job on a caretaker basis, while she shuffled her cabinet.

Her plans to appoint a new prime minister, though, failed after both of her nominees withdrew their names before they even got to the confirmation process.

Nobody else for the job

The first, a former supreme court justice, pulled out amid public criticism over the high income he earned in the private sector after leaving the bench.

The second, a former prominent journalist, withdrew amid a storm of controversy over comments he made that were seen as being supportive of Japan's colonial rule of Korea in the first half of the 20th century.

The spokesman, Yoon, indicated that the president wasn't enthusiastic about keeping Chung in the job on a more permanent basis than she had hoped.

"The many problems exposed during the screening process (for prime ministerial candidates) created a big void in the administrative process and a big division in public opinion," Yoon said.

"Such problems can't be left unresolved for too long so [the president] made the agonized decision to reject Chung's resignation," he added.

The appointment of a prime minister is the only cabinet post that requires parliamentary approval.

pfd/kms (AFP, AP)