SEOUL, South Korea – The top executive at Kia Motors has resigned after the company issued a global recall for tens of thousands of vehicles over defective wiring, the automaker said today.

Chung Sung-eun, vice chairman and CEO of South Korea’s No. 2 automaker, stepped down Friday, according to company spokesman Michael Choo.

“His resignation comes in the light of the recent global recall issued by Kia Motors,” Choo said, without elaborating. He said no successor has been named.

Kia Motors Corp. is an affiliate of South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. Together they form the world’s fifth-largest automotive group.

Chung’s resignation comes amid a wave of recalls that have shaken the global auto industry since Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. began calling in vehicles in October last year.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo asked Chung to step down to take responsibility for the recalls as they suggested possible quality problems.

Neither Choo nor Hyundai Motor spokeswoman Song Meeyoung could confirm the report.

Chung, the former Kia executive, is no relation to the Hyundai chairman.

Early this month Kia issued a global recall totaling at least 85,900 vehicles, according to Choo. The recalls were for a defect in electric wiring that controls mood lighting inside the car and could cause “heat-related damage,” he said. Of that total, 35,185 vehicles were recalled in the United States.

Kia’s China operations were also part of the recall, but Choo could not provide a figure for the number of vehicles affected there.

Seoul-based Kia has a complex management system. Though Chung held the top rank, day-to-day operations come under the control of two presidents: Hank Lee for overseas operations and Seo Young-jong for domestic operations, according to Choo.

Kia, which posted a 61 percent surge in second-quarter net profit, manufactures vehicles in South Korea as well as at overseas plants in China, Slovakia and the U.S.