President Park Geun-hye said Monday that she will cultivate a quality talent pool so that she can have qualified candidates for vacant high-ranking posts in the aftermath of repeated nomination failures.

“A pool of talented individuals will be created as well as carrying out verification of the candidates’ qualities beforehand in order to have the necessary personnel in the right position (at any time),” she said in a meeting with senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae.

“As announced, we will have a new office in charge of personnel management to improve the entire system,” she said.

The president’s commitment came after she retained incumbent Prime Minister Chung Hong-won on Thursday. Chung in late April offered to resign, holding himself responsible for the government’s bungled response to the Sewol disaster that killed nearly 300. Park named former prosecutor Ahn Dae-hee and former journalist Moon Chang-keuk to replace Chung. But both withdrew their nominations amid mounting opposition from political parties and worsening public sentiments. Park’s multiple nomination debacles dealt a heavy blow to her leadership. Her approval ratings dropped to their lowest last month since she took office in February last year.

On her decision to keep Chung in the nation’s No. 2 post, Park said it was “not an easy job” to find someone who holds both a reputation and qualifications high enough to meet the public’s expectations.

“I put in the efforts to find a candidate who meets the demand of the time, but it was not an easy job,” she said.

Park went on to say that she retained Chung because she could no longer have the nation divided over controversies surrounding the prime minister nomination. The president also asked her aides to come up with better solutions to push ahead with her reform plans to eradicate wrongdoings in public offices and to revitalize the sluggish economy.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)