The Republic of Korea’s Prime Minister Chung Un-chan on July 29 offered to resign and accept responsibility for the government's failure to get parliamentary approval for a project for a new business town south of Seoul.
“I am now stepping down from the post of prime minister and take full responsibility for this failure,” Chung Un-chan was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying in a nationally televised press conference the same day.
In 2003, the National Assembly adopted a resolution to move the capital from Seoul to Sejong. A year later, the Constitutional Court ruled out the plan and the then President Roh Moo-Hyun changed it into a relocation of the head offices of government ministries and agencies.
In his turn, President Lee Myung-bak wants to turn Sejong into an education, science and business hub. Chung was in charge of drawing up the new plan and getting it through the National Assembly.
His resignation offer, however, came as a surprise since the ruling Grand National Party's (GNP) won the parliamentary by-elections on July 28, a result expected to boost President Lee's policy initiatives for the remainder of his five-year term, which ends in early 2013.
The realignment of the presidential office has been completed and Chung's resignation may speed up a Cabinet reshuffle, according to local media reports./.
“I am now stepping down from the post of prime minister and take full responsibility for this failure,” Chung Un-chan was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying in a nationally televised press conference the same day.
In 2003, the National Assembly adopted a resolution to move the capital from Seoul to Sejong. A year later, the Constitutional Court ruled out the plan and the then President Roh Moo-Hyun changed it into a relocation of the head offices of government ministries and agencies.
In his turn, President Lee Myung-bak wants to turn Sejong into an education, science and business hub. Chung was in charge of drawing up the new plan and getting it through the National Assembly.
His resignation offer, however, came as a surprise since the ruling Grand National Party's (GNP) won the parliamentary by-elections on July 28, a result expected to boost President Lee's policy initiatives for the remainder of his five-year term, which ends in early 2013.
The realignment of the presidential office has been completed and Chung's resignation may speed up a Cabinet reshuffle, according to local media reports./.
