Pantech vice chairman Park Byeong-yeop offers to resign

Park Byeong-yeop, vice chairman of Pantech, offered to resign Tuesday, holding himself responsible for the mobile phone maker's poor sales performance at home and abroad, company officials said.

The company suffered an operating loss of 49.5 billion won ($46 million) in the April-June period of this year.

As part of efforts for survival, Pantech is encouraging about 800 employees, or a fourth of its workforce, to take a voluntary six-month leave of absence.

Park, 51, founded a small mobile venture firm in 1991 and made it South Korea's third-largest mobile phone manufacturer.

Sources close to Pantech said that Park offered to step down, citing his poor health conditions as well as the company's poor sales performance.

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com