Chung Hong-won will stay as Prime Minister, Blue House says

Chung Hong-won

President Park Geun-hye Thursday morning turned down the resignation Prime Minister Chung Hong-won tendered on April 27 following two failed attempts to seek his replacements, said the Blue House. The president reseating the nation’s top official whose step-down she endorsed earlier is unprecedented.

Park’s surprise decision to have Chung continue the role he assumed in tandem with the launch of President Park Geun-hye administration in February last year was to minimize the state affairs vacuum, according to the presidential office.

“When urgent state tasks are piling up, the problems surrounding the confirmation hearings [for the two previous prime ministerial candidates] have put a hole in state affairs and divided public opinion,” said Yoon Doo-hyun, senior presidential secretary for public affairs, in a press briefing.

Chung said in a statement he would do his best to spearhead the Park government’s drive to revamp of the national system in the wake of the ferry disaster.

BY SEO JI-EUN [spring@joongang.co.kr]