S. Korea backs Lagarde for top IMF post

South Korea on Tuesday expressed its support for French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde in her bid to lead the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported. South Korea's finance ministry delivered its intention to support Lagarde to Australia, which currently represents Asia-Pacific member countries of the IMF, ministry officials told Yonhap. South Korea has become the latest nation to officially endorse Lagarde, who is seeking to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned last month as the IMF's managing director after being arrested on sexual assault charges in New York. The 24-member executive board, which represents the 187 members of the IMF, will hold a meeting in Washington on Tuesday (local time), seeking to select the new managing director by consensus. Lagarde, 55, is competing with Agustin Carstens, a Mexican central banker. Many European countries have expressed their support for her amid lingering debt crises in some of their peer countries. The US and Japan, the two biggest stakeholders in the IMF, remain silent.