By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter


More Korean women are holding high-ranking government and judicial posts as an increasing number of women pass the national bar and civil servants recruitment exams.

The Civil Service Commission, the government’s human resources management agency, said Friday that 95 women passed this year’s state-run exam designed to select mid-level civil servants, accounting for 44 percent of the total 216 exam passes.

The figure is up 5.6 percentage points from 38.4 percent recorded in 2004.

``As more women are now preparing for state exams, it is quite natural that a growing number of them are making it through the tests,’’ a commission official said, adding that the trend would probably continue in coming years.

The commission said that five out of nine successful candidates who applied for education-related administrative positions were women, while they took half of 14 available spots in the field of international trade and administration.

Fifty-three women are expected to work in various government offices as general administrators, accounting for 47.3 percent of the total 112 successful candidates.

About 41.3 percent, or 27 out of 65 exam passers applying for finance and economy-related posts, were women.

Beside those recruited through the state exam, various government agencies are increasingly recruiting more private experts, such as professors and corporate executives, to fill up high-level government positions, according to the commission.

It said that the government is adopting a competitive recruitment system to select more qualified and competent personnel as in the private sector.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice said that 323 women passed this year’s bar exam, accounting for 32.3 percent of the total 1,001 successful candidates, up from 24.4 percent in 2004. A total of 246 women succeeded in passing the exam last year

In South Korea, only those who qualify in the bar exam can receive a license to practice law, while people in other advanced countries usually go to law schools and practice in the legal profession.

The country is set to introduce the three-year American-style law schools by 2008 in which people with various academic backgrounds can receive practical legal education.

The government has been seeking to revamp the current exam-oriented selection system that has failed to link the education in law and the judicial system, and provide the public with more diverse and affordable legal services.

leehs@koreatimes.co.kr