S Korean PM likely to quit
2010-07-02 22:51
Seoul - South Korea's prime minister is likely to offer his resignation over the failure of a multi-billion-dollar plan to develop a new city as a science, business and education hub, a report said on Friday.
Parliament rejected the government proposal on Tuesday, signalling the revival of an earlier plan to relocate nine ministries and four government agencies to Sejong City, 150 kilometres south of Seoul.
A senior official at the prime minister's office said Chung Un-Chan would likely inform President Lee Myung-Bak on Sunday of his intention to step down, Yonhap news agency reported.
"I believe he will have a meeting with President Lee and offer his resignation there" as soon as the prime minister returns from an overseas trip, the unnamed official was quoted as saying.
Lee's liberal predecessor Roh Moo-Hyun in 2003 secured parliamentary approval to relocate the capital from Seoul to Sejong City - named after the king who developed the country's alphabet in the 15th century.
The project was touted as promoting balanced regional development in a country where almost half the 49 million population lives in Seoul or surrounding cities.
The constitutional court in 2004 ruled the capital could not be relocated and Roh came up with a modified plan to move the ministries.
Critics depicted the plan as a pork-barrel project which would create inefficiencies.
In a politically risky move, Lee's government announced a revised plan to develop the science, business and education hub at Sejong City, now under construction.
It proposed incentives such as cheaper land, tax cuts and state subsidies to lure firms, colleges, research institutes and hospitals.
