Seoul: President Lee Jae Myung has dismissed Lee Bae-yong, head of the National Education Commission, the presidential office said Tuesday, amid allegations she secured her post through bribery.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the president approved her resignation Monday evening, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a press notice. The commission chief offered to resign last week over allegations that she gifted a golden turtle ornament to former first lady Kim Keon Hee after ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol's election win in March 2022 in hope of securing a senior government post.
The bribery allegations emerged after a special probe team searched the home of former first lady Kim's mother in connection with a real estate development scandal and discovered the golden ornament along with a letter Lee Bae-yong had written to Yoon and Kim.