President Park Geun-hye pledged Tuesday to make South Korea a merit-based society putting capabilities ahead of academic backgrounds as she praised the country\'s team of technicians for winning an international skills competition for the fourth year in a row. South Korea finished first in the overall medal tally in this year\'s WorldSkills Competition held in Germany\'s Leipzig earlier this month with 12 golds, five silvers and six bronzes, well ahead of runner-up Switzerland with nine golds, three silvers and five bronzes.