SEOUL, May 28 – South Korea’s prime minister nominee Ahn Dai-hee on Wednesday offered to resign as a candidate for the No. 2 post amid mounting criticism over his excessive salary as a lawyer in the past, Xinhua news agency reports citing local media.
The 59-year-old former Supreme Court justice was nominated by President Park Geun-hye on May 22 to replace incumbent Chung Hong-won who offered to step down to take responsibility for last month’s ferry sinking disaster.
Ahn worked as a lawyer at a law firm for five months and earned 1.6 billion won (US$1.57 million) during this period. Ahn has come under harsh criticism from opposition parties for his exorbitant salary, which critics say was granted as privilege from his former post as Supreme Court justice.
Amid the growing criticism, Ahn decided to donate 1.1 billion won after subscribing 0.5 billion won in the past to charitable work.
He was also criticised for a 0.3 billion won donation just three days before being nominated as prime minister.
Previous prime minister Chung offered to resign after apologising for the sinking of the ferry Sewol which capsized off the southwestern coast on April 16.
President Park put off the acceptance of Chung’s resignation to allow him to handle the ferry sinking incident.
-BERNAMA
