President Park Geun-hye on Monday accepted the resignation of Cho Yoon-sun, her top aide for political affairs, who offered to quit to take responsibility for the civil servants’ pension reform bill failing to pass.
Cho, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, said she was stepping down as she felt “a grave sense of responsibility” over the pension bill that has been stuck amid political wrangling between the rival parties, Park’s spokesman Min Kyung-wook told reporters.
“The reform bill was a crucial task designed not only to immediately reduce the financial burden but also to enhance the fairness in people’s lives and for the future generations,” Cho said in a statement read by Min.
“The present situation, however, (in which parties brought) other irrelevant issues like national pension, basic pension as well as a tax boost in return for endorsing the civil servants’ pension reform, has completely ignored the initial intention of the reform and has disappointed the people,” she said.
Cho Yoon-sun. (Yonhap)
Cho’s sudden resignation came amid heavy wrangling among the rival parties over the conditions to be attached to the bill.
Cho in her statement stressed that the reform bill was a matter that should have been approached “regardless of political gains.”
“I feel a grave sense of responsibility for disappointing the president and failing to prevent the reform process from being distorted.”
Cho was named to the post in June when Cheong Wa Dae was facing a deepening partisan feud after a series of Park’s failed nominations for a new prime minister. Before the post, she served as the Park administration’s first minister for gender and equality.
Cho has been one of Park’s most entrusted aides since the 2012 presidential campaign, accompanying Park on most of her campaign trails as her spokeswoman. Cho, a lawyer-turned-politician, entered politics in 2002 as a spokesperson for Lee Hoi-chang, former chief of the Grand National Party, the precursor to the Saenuri Party.
She won her first parliamentary seat in 2008, but failed to receive the party’s nomination for the 2012 general elections.
By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)
