Kim Yong-beom, chief of the presidential office's policy planning, stepped down on the 1st after offering to resign.
Kang Yu-jung, senior presidential spokesperson, told a briefing at the presidential press center that Kim submitted the offer to resign a day earlier, on Aug. 31. President Lee Jae-myung accepted the resignation on the 1st, she said.
Lee replaced ministers at six government agencies on the 30th of last month and named new aides to some presidential office posts, while keeping in place the three chiefs — the presidential chief of staff, the policy chief and the national security adviser — including Kim. Opposition parties criticized the move sharply, calling it a reshuffle that cut loose subordinates while leaving in place those responsible for economic failures. Rep. Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party also raised questions over the fact that the sons of Kim and Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin both work at Mirae Asset Global Investments, an ETF manager.
Kim appears to have offered to resign in response to such criticism, taking responsibility for confusion in housing policy over the past year and for the introduction of single-stock leveraged products.
