(EDITORIAL from the JoongAng Daily on Dec. 18) - Voluntary resignations?

Seven senior officials at the Education Ministry and three at the National Tax Service have submitted letters of resignation. The Blue House said it did not order these resignations and that this could be a sign of similar moves to come in other government agencies. But given how the civil service works, it is impossible for things like this to happen without thorough planning by those in higher ranks.

Grand National Party leader Hong Joon-pyo has publicly said,
"When there is an administrative change, the whole public service needs to
change."

The Democratic Party said an attempt to replace senior-level
government officials is barefaced blackmail of all public servants. Now, all the
government agencies are in an uproar over the latest development.
The issue should be carefully reviewed and judged based on the two often-clashing
principles of political reality and the guarantee of public servants" job
security.
Until 2006, many first-level officials customarily submitted letters of
resignation when there was a new administration, so that the new government could
roll out its policies in line with its political principles.
The old custom was certainly not free of pitfalls, including excessive
replacement of high-level officials that often disrupted ordinary government
operations. But across-the-board replacements of senior government positions, as
done in the United States, are customary.
It has been long believed that the operations of such government agencies as the
Education Ministry and the National Tax Service are closely related to the
administration's political principles and directions. The Lee Myung-bak
administration needed a dramatic turnaround from the policies of the past liberal
administrations of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. This discrepancy between the
legacies of the past and the current administration???s objectives has long
sparked frustration among ruling party lawmakers.
But the biggest issue here is that the current law guarantees the job security of
first-level government officials. Thus, pressuring high-level officials to resign
voluntarily, instead of firing them, is clearly bending the current law. This
will cause the civil service to lose even more of their operational consistency.
A politically tricky issue like this needs further review. We must decide whether
to overhaul laws pertaining to public servants and require high-level officials
to submit resignations when there is a change in administration, or reassign the
officials to other positions.
(END)