Senior farm ministry officials resign en masse

SEOUL, Dec. 19 (Yonhap) -- Senior officials at the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries offered to resign en masse on Friday as the Lee Myung-bak administration takes steps to tighten its hold on the bureaucracy.
The decision by three ranking bureaucrats at the ministry's headquarters and the
head of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) follows
similar steps taken by officials at the Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology, the National Tax Service (NTS) and the presidential Cheong Wa Dae.
Earlier in the week seven education ministry officials and three from the NTS
said they would resign.
Kim Jae-soo, chief of the ministry's Planning and Coordination Office, Chung
Seung head of the Food Industry Headquarters, Bae Jong-ha of the Fisheries Policy
Office tendered their resignations starting late Thursday.
Park Chong-guk, NFRDI director in Busan, also tendered his resignation.
All officials who offered to resign are so-called executive level officials who
fill the uppermost tier of the bureaucracy. They are referred to as assistant and
deputy ministers and rank just under vice ministers.
At present there are 291 executive official-level posts in the government of
which 45 are presidential aides.
A ministry source said that the decision was taken voluntarily and there was no
pressure exerted from above.
Political pundits, however, speculated that the string of resignations may be
linked to President Lee's ongoing effort to tighten control over bureaucrats that
rose through the ranks under the past two liberal administrations.
There has been growing frustration within the ruling camp that many officials
were not supportive of new policy initiatives set forth by the president.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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