Creditors to Pantech Co. agreed to end a debt workout program for the nation’s third-largest handset maker on Wednesday, one day after its CEO Park Byeong-yeop offered to resign.

In an urgent press conference on Tuesday, Park said that he would step down from his post on Dec. 31, citing health problems. He didn’t show up at his office on Wednesday.

“We have no idea for now how the graduation from the workout program will affect Park’s decisions in the future,” said a Pantech official.

Industry watchers speculated that the Pantech founder may have sacrificed his post to induce an earlier decision from creditors. And now he is likely to reconsider his resignation, they said.

But Park made it clear on Tuesday that he would take a break even if creditors appoint him again as chief executive.

“Over the last five years, I have worked without holidays and can no longer bear the chronic fatigue,” Park told reporters at the company’s headquarters in northern Seoul.

He gave up his stock option worth 10 percent of company shares that he would receive were he to maintain his position for an additional three months.

In a separate statement Wednesday, Pantech said it would step up efforts to normalize management and to continue innovation.

“Graduating from the debt program is not the end but the beginning of the company’s coming 50 years,” the company said.

Park founded Pantech in 1991 and led the growth of the small mobile venture to become the nation’s No. 3 mobile phone maker next to local electronics giants Samsung and LG.

The company was put under a four-year debt-rescheduling program worth 1.28 trillion won ($1.4 billion) in 2007.

Qualcomm Inc. is Pantech’s third-largest shareholder with a 10.7 percent stake. The U.S. chipmaker agreed to convert Panteh’s royalty debts into equity in 2009.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)