South Korea on Friday filled the post of chief state auditor that had been vacant for more than five months amid political setbacks and the disgraceful exit of a former nominee.

President Lee Myung-bak gave a letter of appointment to Yang Kun to lead the Board of Audit and Inspection. Lee earlier emphasized the agency’s role in his “fair society” campaign and drive to fight corruption and moral hazards among civil servants in his last two years in office.

The National Assembly held a two-day confirmation hearing on Yang, who served as a professor of law at Hanyang University, earlier this week amid low media attention. Yang‘s abilities and ethical background were less contentious than those of many other nominees for high-level posts chosen by the Lee administration, although his wife’s 2004 purchase of land in the eastern province of Gangwon raised suspicions of property speculation.

The president initially named Chung Tong-ki, a former prosecutor and presidential staffer, as the new BAI chief, to replace Kim Hwang-sik who became the prime minister last October.

Opposition parties attacked the nomination, hounding Chung for the big paychecks he received from a law firm years ago.

The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae was then caught off guard by the sudden demand of the ruling Grand National Party that Chung give up his bid to become the top state auditor. In the end, Chung abandoned his bid in January.

Cheong Wa Dae officials openly expressed uneasiness that the ruling party had made public its position on Chung’s nomination without prior consultations with Cheong Wa Dae.

Some newspapers construed the stand-off between Cheong Wa Dae and the GNP as ushering in an early lame-duck administration. Lee’s tenure will end in early 2013. He is banned from seeking re-election under the Constitution. 

(Yonhap News)