President Park Geun-hye called Tuesday for public support as she pledged to push ahead with efforts to reform South Korea's rigid labor market and other sectors.
  

Park's latest appeal came amid little signs of progress in overhauling such issues as labor market duality -- the difference in pay and job security between regular and non-regular workers.
  

Some companies shun recruitment and instead rely on non-regular workers that they can fire more easily as the economy remains sluggish, a development that has pushed up the jobless rate for young people.
  

She admitted that challenges lie ahead and warned of a bleak future unless reform is made.
  

"Our government may choose an easy path, but my commitment is that I should leave behind a better future for future generations with the mandate people bestowed on me," Park said in a regular Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea's presidential office.

She called on a tripartite committee of the government, businesses and labor organizations to resume dialogue and make concessions to produce a deal meant to reform South Korea's rigid labor market.
  

The dialogue has been stalled since April when an umbrella labor union walked out of its negotiations with the government and management on labor market reforms.
  

A freer employment system has been a key bone of contention among the three parties. The government has been pushing to give corporate management more leeway in laying off workers as the country strives to revive the faltering economy.
  

She warned that it would be even harder for young people to find jobs next year unless a wage peak system properly takes root.
  

The system is designed, among other things, to provide job security for older employees through a gradual wage cut after a certain age. The money saved can be used to hire more young people.
  

The unemployment rate for young people between the ages of 15 and 29 stood at 10.2 percent in June, compared with the overall jobless rate of 3.9 percent in the same period, according to government data.
  

She also called for reform in the finance and public sectors as well as education.
  

Separately, she instructed Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn to concentrate government resources on rooting out corruption and fixing abnormalities across society.
  

Hwang told Park that he will press ahead with the anti-corruption drive, calling it a must to become an advanced country. He also vowed to ensure a system is in place to verify budgets and their implementation of major government projects.
  

The comments came more than a month after a rear admiral was arrested for alleged corruption in connection with the country's arms procurement projects, the latest in a series of bribery scandals that have hit the Navy.
  

Chung Ok-geun, who served as Navy chief of staff from 2008-2010, was arrested in January on charges of receiving more than 700 million won ($605,000) from local defense firms. (Yonhap)