South Korea is not going to have a creationist heading a new ministry. Park Seong-jin, nominated to head the newly created ministry of small and medium venture business in South Korea, withdrew himself from consideration for the post, according to KBS World Radio (September 15, 2017), after the National Assembly adopted a hearing report finding him unfit for the post.
As NCSE previously reported, Park was a controversial nominee primarily because of his affiliation with the Korea Association for Creation Research, a young-earth creationist organization that promotes creation science; Park reportedly resigned as its director the day before he was nominated for the post.
According to a report from UPI (September 11, 2017), during a recent hearing before the National Assembly, Park told legislators, "As an adherent of creationism, [I believe] the Earth's age is 6,000 years, as put forward by the church." Song Ki-hun, a Democratic member of the National Assembly, commented that Park's views "worried" people in the "bio-sciences sector."