Understanding young Koreans' rage against Cho Kuk

Seoul National University students hold a rally on their campus, Aug. 23, to urge justice minister nominee Cho Kuk to step down due to multiple allegations surrounding his family. / Yonhap

By Lee Suh-yoon

For Kim Mina, 27, a graduate student studying science history and philosophy in Seoul, preparing for college was like making her way through a dark maze by herself.

The small town she grew up in Gyeonggi Province got its first public library when she was in middle school. In high school, she realized English was not a subject she could teach herself with books after getting the result of her first national exam trial test. Her parents were loving, but did not have the education to understand much of her writing.

So when she entered Seoul National University (SNU) through a special quota for residents of agriculture and fishing areas, the gap she felt with many of her lavishly groomed peers ― many of them from upper class households ― often made her feel alone.

But it still didn't prepare her for the recent scandal involving justice minister nominee Cho Kuk's daughter. It has been reported that Cho's daughter was named as the lead author in an academic research paper published in the Korean Journal of Pathology after just a two-week internship when she was only a high school student. The internship was with a Dankook University professor whose son went to the same foreign language school as her. The paper gave a boost to her college applications and got her a spot at Korea University. She now attends medical school in Busan, which allegedly gave her scholarships she did not qualify for.

"The scandal lays bare how meticulously the elite pass down their socioeconomic status to their children. Cho says everything happened within legal boundaries but knowing the use of such loopholes is also power," Kim told The Korea Times. "Seeing it really shook me up, opening up all the feelings of inferiority and deprivation that have built up inside me for years."

According to last year's government scholarship data, between one half and two-thirds of students at the top-three universities ― Seoul National, Korea and Yonsei ― came from households in the top 20th percentile of income distribution.

Kim's comments on the Cho scandal were shared over 1,680 times on Twitter, with many supporting her view. Despite all his talk on progressive values and social equality, Cho, too, is now perceived as part of a system most young people feel oppressed by ― the rich elite parent with enough inside influence to set his daughter on the path to guaranteed success amid moral gray zones.

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Many are also enraged and disappointed with Cho because the revelations involving him and his family are the extreme opposite of what he called for as a law professor and a "progressive figure."

His social media posts condemning social inequality head-on got thousands of likes from young voters, and the bulk of his political image ― and career ― rested on the principles of equality, justice and human rights.

In his 2010 book, for example, Cho writes "Isn't it horrible how the household one is born into determines one's life?"

In a social media post written in 2012, he also said that in a society where economic disparity has become wider, the chance of a person from low-income brackets to become successful is very low, citing a Korean proverb that even a dragon can be born from a dirty stream. "Not everybody can be dragon, but they don't need to be dragon," he said. "What's more important is to make an environment where fish, frogs and crayfish can live happily in the stream without becoming a dragon and flying into the sky."

Jo, a senior SNU student who took Cho's criminal law class in 2014, said he was put off by the double standard.

"As a professor he seemed hard-working and morally righteous. If he was going to be different behind everyone's back, maybe he should have been a bit more generous with his moral rules," Jo said.

Some of the strongest backlash came from students at Korea University, which is planning another candlelit rally calling for Cho's resignation this week.

"If I also had a gold spoon parent like Cho Kuk, I could have just chilled in high school, become a lead author of a published research paper and got a free pass to Korea University," one student anonymously wrote on the university's online community. "I also could have enjoyed college life rather than giving it all up to prepare for medical grad school."

More students' groups at other universities are joining the call for Cho to step down.

In an official statement Monday, the student union at Kyungpook National University called for a probe into the whole "cartel," starting with the children of all high-ranking officials.

Regarding the row, Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said he understands the rage. "I bitterly sympathize with the disappointment and anger shown by the peers of Cho's daughter. I also assume people who expected a fair society feel uncomfortable," Lee said during a National Assembly session, Monday.

But Lee said he would wait and see what Cho's explanations of the allegations were at his confirmation hearing.