Korean Red Cross chief Kim Sung-joo apologized Monday for failing to appear at a National Assembly audit last week, taking off to China instead to attend a meeting of Red Cross officials.

Meanwhile, unionized workers of the Red Cross called for Kim’s resignation, claiming their leader is ill-qualified for her post on the same day ― which also marks the humanitarian body’s 109th anniversary.

“I offer my apologies to the National Assembly as well as the citizens,” Kim said at the National Assembly in Seoul.

“I’ve never lived as a public servant. And because I’ve only lived as a businesswoman, I didn’t have the right grasp (of the importance of attending the National Assembly audit). I promise this will never happen again in future.”

Kim, who helmed the luxury fashion brand MCM and was a key member of Park Geun-hye’s campaign team during the 2012 presidential election campaign, was ordered by the nation’s political parties to show up at the Assembly on Monday, after she failed to attend the mandatory session on Oct. 23.

She decided to participate in the Red Cross Asia Pacific Conference in Beijing, which took place from Oct. 21-25, instead of the parliamentary audit, because the Red Cross event is only held every four years, Kim explained.

On the same day, however, unionized workers of the Korean Red Cross issued a public statement calling for her resignation, accusing her of “shaming” KRC with her “unreasonable, absurd” decision not to attend the National Assembly inspection, along with doubts over her qualifications for the position.

“Her decision (not to attend the audit) is extremely difficult to understand even among the workers of Korean Red Cross,” the workers said in a statement.

“(By not attending the mandatory session) she ignored the citizens’ right to be informed. She is not just shaming herself, but shaming the Korean Red Cross with her actions.”

The Presidential Office has been criticized over Kim’s appointment as chief of the Korean Red Cross, which mainly deals with inter-Korean humanitarian issues, as an unethical and preferential recruitment of one of Park’s closest aides.

Critics point out that Kim had not paid annual membership fees to Red Cross ― which are 30,000 won ($28) a year ― for five years prior to her appointment, and that the former businesswoman had no experience in the nonprofit world.

“Since her appointment, Kim has refused to listen to, and communicate with the workers of the Korean Red Cross, and almost all decisions were solely made by herself, including the one on the National Assembly inspection,” the unionized workers of Korean Red Cross said in a statement.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)