South Korean Education Minister Kim Byong-joon offered to resign on Wednesday to take responsibility for the scandal of thesis plagiarism, the Presidential Office of Cheong Wa Dae said.

"Minister Kim visited Cheong Wa Dae this morning to meet with President Roh Moo-hyun and expressed his intention to quit," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Jung Tae-ho said.

"Kim also said he felt relieved after clearing up much of the suspicions surrounding him at a National Assembly session on the previous day."

It is unclear whether the president would accept Kim's resignation.

In a brief statement, Kim said he does not want to put political burdens on the president and the ruling Uri Party any longer.

"Most of the suspicions have been cleared through Tuesday's parliamentary session. I want to take a rest for the time being," the statement said.

Kim, 52, took office just 12 days ago as deputy prime minister and education minister.

Kim's scandal of alleged thesis plagiarism broke out just three days after he took office on July 21, when a vernacular daily disclosed that he was suspected of plagiarizing his student's thesis in 1987 while serving as a political science professor at Seoul's Kookmin University.

Following the plagiarism scandal, local reports said Kim is in suspicion of multiple publications of a single thesis and embezzlement of state academic subsidies.

Source: Xinhua