Kim Jin-suk, president of Korea Expressway Corporation, expressed his resignation today (23rd).



It has been two days since it was announced that Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong ordered a intensive inspection of the road construction, saying, "I doubt the will to innovate."



It is the second mid-term resignation of the president of a public company appointed during the Moon Jae-in administration since the inauguration of the Yun Seok-yeol government, after Kim Hyun-joon, former president of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH).



According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Highway Corporation, on the 23rd, President Kim officially informed the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that he would resign due to 'Ilsan-related reasons'.



President Kim said that after she entered her public office with a technical examination, she served as the first female manager, director, and head of an agency in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.



She was last appointed as the first female president of the road construction company in April 2020 when she was 51 years old.



President Kim's term ends in April next year, and there are still about 7 months left.



President Kim's resignation came abruptly two days after it became known that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport was conducting intensive inspections on road construction.



On the 21st, Minister Won posted on his Facebook page that it is suspected that the Road Corporation is trying to resist reform by refusing to respond to proposals such as lowering food prices at highway rest areas and leaking inside information to the outside for the benefit of the corporation. did," he said.



Previously last month, former LH president Kim Hyun-joon resigned voluntarily with one year and eight months remaining.



Shortly after Minister Won took office, he is carrying out high-intensity innovation work for 28 public institutions under his jurisdiction.



In June, after instructing public institutions to "create and submit their own innovation plans within one week," at a briefing in July, they also formed a task force (TF) in which private experts participate, saying "there is a lack of awareness of the fundamental problem." He said that he would directly initiate fundamental innovation.



Some of the opposition parties also criticized this as "using and intimidating public institutions for political purposes."



Earlier, in early July, heads of national research institutes such as Hong Jang-pyo, president of the Korea Development Institute (KDI), who designed the income-led growth policy of the Moon Jae-in government, and Hwang Deok-soon, president of the Korea Labor Institute (KLI), who served as chief job opportunities in the Moon administration's presidential office, met with the current government. He also resigned in protest against differences in policy and pressure to resign.



(Photo = Yonhap News)