The foreign ministry on Friday denied fresh
charges of favoritism after a daughter of a former head of a state audit agency was hired as a French-language specialist last week.
According to the ministry, the 40-year-old daughter of Jeon Yun-churl, a former chief of the Board of Audit and Inspection, beat out 16 candidates in the special hiring process for a mid-level diplomatic servant spot in June.
The foreign ministry had already hired a French-language expert last year but created an extra post this year. An official explained that the ministry wanted to bolster its "energy diplomacy" with African nations by adding
another French expert.
The official said the five-member interview panel was made up of three outside experts and two ministry officials and that they were all fair in their evaluation.
"The three outside members actually gave the younger Jeon the highest marks," the official said. "One of the two ministry officials awarded her the most points, while the other gave her the same score as the runner-up. We didn't give (the daughter) any special benefits."
The foreign ministry is reeling from nepotism charges over its controversial hiring of former Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan's daughter. Yu
offered to resign last weekend over mounting criticism that his daughter had received favorable treatment during the hiring process for a position handling free trade.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety confirmed that the foreign ministry had bent rules to ensure Yu's daughter would get the job. Two ministry officials were disciplined Thursday for their role in the hiring of the ex-minister's daughter.
Inspectors are also probing the ministry's hiring of senior diplomats' children to see if the process had been fair.
On Wednesday, Rep. Park Sun-young of the Liberty Forward Party argued that the ministry hired two children of former senior diplomats in 2006, just two months after they failed an earlier exam for different posts. The ministry later said only one of them is a child of an ex-ambassador, and that the two exams were intended for separate posts.