The tradition of nepotism in Korea runs deep and long in this society.  It's everywhere you look.  Whether it's the best and the biggest of the Korean companies or your local English Hagwon, it wouldn't be surprising to see the founder's son running things with his father's blessing.  But the department of foreign affairs of the Korean government is not a place where you'd expect nepotism.  Well, there might have been a case of it and it's making quite a news story now.

Myeong Hwan Yoo is Korea's secretary of foreign affairs right now and her daughter was just offered a contractor position at the same department.  It seems that she was the one and the only choice out of 13 candidates who applied for the position.  Though she worked as a contractor for the department over the last 2 years, the circumstances that enabled her to beat out 13 other candidates are raising questions about the legitimacy of her hiring.

It seems that there were 2 rounds of recruiting done for this position.  In the first one, Mr. Yoo's daughter applied along with 7 other candidates only to get disqualified due to submitting an incomplete set of documents.  Fortunately for her, the department of foreign affairs declared no one out of 7 remaining candidate pool was good enough and cancelled the whole thing.  Shortly after, another round of recruiting was announced.  Armed with a complete set of documents this time, Mr. Yoo's 35-year-old daughter successfully secured the position beating out 6 other candidates.

Looking at her past records, some argue that she was rightfully hired.  Having worked in the past at now defunct Arthur Anderson, the accounting/consulting firm and working as a contractor for the department of foreign affairs in a stint which began before her daddy became the head honcho, she does seem to possess the superficial qualification to be the right choice.  However, there are now unconfirmed rumors that are being printed by national papers that claim her work record was less than stellar.  

Some of her former colleagues accuse her of inexcusably missing work and getting her mommy to call in an excuse for her (she later confessed she asked her daddy to call it in, according to another source) to her boss.  At work, she was known have bad attitude.

Whether all the rumors are true or not or this entire thing is just overblown case of coincidences, it seems awfully foolish of Ms. Yoo to be playing with fire so close to a leaking tank of gas.  I mean, given the political attacks and blackmailing that almost defines the Korean political system, why risk harming a hard-earned reputation and career of your daddy?

UPDATE: Mr. Yoo, the secretary of foreign affairs, announced his resignation.  

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