South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan resigned yesterday for playing golf this month instead of tending to a nationwide rail strike.
President Roh Moo-hyun, who returned yesterday from a trip to Africa, accepted Lee's offer to resign. A presidential spokesman said in Seoul that Roh had followed the recommendation of his ruling Uri Party, which had called for Lee to go.
Lee has been under increasing pressure to step down after he spent March 1, a national holiday, on a golf outing with business leaders instead of helping with the government's response to the strike which began that day.
In addition, the business leaders are suspected of trying to lobby the prime minister during their game, and one of them had served prison time for manipulating stock prices.
Since the golf outing, Lee, a reform-oriented politician who became prime minister in June 2004, has apologized three times. The latest apology came on Monday.
"I apologize for my inconsiderate behavior to the people and to hard-working government officials," he said during a meeting with senior government officials. "I realize that I have to be more prudent and considerate."
But the apologies and his vows to show better judgement in the future failed to stem the criticism and prop up flagging support for Lee, both from the public and his own Uri Party, as local elections loom in May.
The Uri Party welcomed Roh's decision.
"The president's acceptance of Lee's resignation is viewed as the correct decision as it reflects public opinion," a party spokesman said.
Inquiries into the golf outing in Busan had been launched by the party, the opposition and the presidential office. The opposition has also called for prosecutors to investigate.
In South Korea, power rests with the president, but Lee has become one of the most powerful prime ministers in South Korea's history and has taken over a number of domestic duties.
Lee's successor, whom Roh will appoint, was not immediately announced.
The rail strike lasted three days before workers went back to work on March 4. It caused most of the trains in the country to stop running, losses for companies reliant on rail transport and chaos for commuters.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS