[Anchor]

Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik has offered to resign. Kang, who also chaired the presidential personnel committee, appears to be stepping down to take responsibility for the failed appointments of ministerial nominees.

Reporter Park Ye-rin reports first.

[Reporter]

Cheong Wa Dae announced yesterday afternoon (September 21) in an unscheduled briefing that Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik had tendered his resignation.

[Sung Ki-hong / Senior Presidential Secretary for Public Communication: Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik tendered his resignation to President Lee Jae-myung this morning.]

This comes three days after President Lee Jae-myung's press conference, which began with the message "Apologies to the public," and two days after Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won voluntarily withdrew his nomination.

A Cheong Wa Dae official explained, "This is to take comprehensive responsibility as the chief of staff assisting the president."

Although President Lee Jae-myung carried out a cabinet reshuffle on August 30, both Yong Hye-in, the nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family, and Kim Seung-won, the nominee for Minister of Justice, successively withdrew amid mounting controversy. As calls holding the presidential office accountable for the personnel appointment failures grew, Kang, who also heads the presidential personnel committee, is widely interpreted as stepping down to shoulder the responsibility.

An hour after the announcement of the resignation offer, President Lee presided over a meeting of senior secretaries and aides, thanking Kang for his hard work and saying:

[President Lee Jae-myung: I guess you are saying you would finally like to 'graduate' today? I haven't quite decided yet what I will do, but....]

President Lee departed yesterday on an official trip to the United States and Mexico to attend the UN General Assembly and other events, and the resignation is expected to be accepted immediately upon his return.

Chief of Staff Kang is reported to have posted a message in a social media chatroom for Cheong Wa Dae aides yesterday afternoon, urging that "the ranks must not be broken regardless of my own course of action."

With two of the three chief-of-staff-level posts at Cheong Wa Dae—often referred to as President Lee's "trio formation"—now becoming vacant, a full-scale reshuffle of the presidential staff may follow.

Among those mentioned as potential successors for the chief of staff post are Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan, as well as Democratic Party lawmakers Cheon Jun-ho and Han Jun-ho.

(Video by Jeong Sang-bo and Yoon Hyung | Video Editing by Wi Won-yang | Graphics by Cho SOOIN)