Off the wire
• Libyan army warplanes bomb IS-controlled Derna  • 1st LD-Writethru: Chinese stock market extends bull run  • Tajik man arrested for possessing 8 kg of heroin  • China's major grain-yielding province increases output  • Turkey evacuates embassy in Yemen  • China calls on Yemen's Houthis to implement UN resolution  • Condo supply in Tokyo area plunges 8.1 pct in January  • Philippine military warns against destabilization efforts  • Foreign exchange rates in Hong Kong  • Trading on Hong Kong Stock Exchange  
You are here: 　 Home

1st LD: S. Korean parliament approves PM nominee

Xinhua, February 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

The South Korean parliament approved prime minister nominee Lee Wan-koo on Monday.

Lee, 64, will replace Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, who submitted resignation in 2014 to assume responsibility for a deadly ferry disaster in mid-April that left more than 300 people, mostly high school students, dead.

Lawmakers passed the approval 148-128, with five invalid. Participants in the voting included 155 members of the ruling Saenuri Party, which mean about seven members were against Lee's approval.

Lee, former ruling party floor leader, became the second prime minister under the Park Geun-hye administration, after two nominees failed to get the country's second-highest executive position for ethical and ideological issues.

President Park is scheduled to endorse Lee as the prime minister on Tuesday, which will let him launch his task officially.

As the new prime minister takes office, Park is expected to conduct a small cabinet reshuffle while nominating some presidential secretaries as early as Tuesday.

South Korea will be in the five-day Lunar New Year's holiday from Wednesday. Endi