SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korea's new government will streamline public organisations, the finance minister said on Friday (July 29).

It cited concerns about efficiency after a rapid expansion in their operations under the previous administration.

The government will cut the number of employees and reduce expenses at the organisations as the first step in a planned series of reform measures, Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho was quoted in a statement as saying at a scheduled meeting.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has promised to reform the public sector.

Earlier this month, he said his government would aggressively cut expenditure and sell non-core assets at public enterprises.

The move came as Yoon suffers a sustained decline in approval ratings, with the latest weekly opinion poll from Gallup Korea showing on Friday his approval fell to 28 per cent from 32 per cent a week earlier.

Choo said a total of 350 public organisations were employing 449,000 people as of the end of May and carrying 583 trillion won (S$620 billion) in combined liabilities at the end of 2021, up 34 per cent and 17 per cent over the past five years, respectively.

There were concerns among the general public and experts about efficiency and profitability matching the rapid expansion in scale of public organisations, he said.