By Jung Min-ho
Moon Dae-sung, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and lawmaker of President Park Geun-hye's Saenuri Party, has sued Kookmin University over his canceled Ph. D.
Regardless of the outcome, the legal action will likely save Moon's status with the IOC, where he is to serve on the athletes' council until 2016.
Following a two-year investigation, Kookmin concluded in February that Moon's 2007 thesis was plagiarized and took away his degree in sports psychology on March 6.
According to officials from the Seoul-based school, Monday, Moon filed a lawsuit against Kookmin in the Seoul Northern District Court on March 18.
''We received notification from the court on April 2 and we are still discussing how to respond to it,'' a school official said.
"It is a nullification suit against the school's decision to revoke his degree. We cannot reveal any more detailed information at this point."
Moon's representatives refused to comment. Moon, who won a gold medal at the Athens Olympics in taekwondo, recently rejoined the conservative Saenuri Party, which he was kicked out of in 2012 when the plagiarism accusations first emerged.
Moon's disputed paper, "Effect of Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation on Flexibility and Isokinetic Muscle Strength in Taekwondo Practitioners," is flagrant as a cut-and-paste job with him even Xeroxing factual errors and misspellings of the original content.
Kookmin does not doubt that it is favored to win its court battle against Moon. But Moon will be able to extend the litigation just long enough to keep his post in the IOC.
The IOC conducted its own probe into Moon's academic credentials before shelving it in December, citing the lack of a conclusive statement from Kookmin. IOC President Thomas Bach then said the ethics committee investigation could be reopened if "new elements emerge."
It now looks as if the IOC procrastinated on Moon's issue just long enough to avoid doing anything about it. Kookmin confirmed that it sent its investigation report on Moon to the IOC on March 27, but the sporting body is seemingly pretending it has never seen the document.
IOC spokesman Andrew Mitchell said, "We understand that Mr. Moon has appealed the decision of the university in front of the Korean court. Until there is a ruling, we have no further comment to make."
This means, presumably, the IOC will likely keep the issue under wraps until Moon's term in the IOC ends in two years, considering that legal disputes usually takes several years to finish before the Supreme Court if neither party bows out.
Angered by a lack of proper response from the Saenuri Party and Moon, members of Saha Grass Roots Network, a civic group in Moon's legislative district in Busan, plan to sue him for violating the Election Law by the end of the month.
"During his campaign, he lied that he did not plagiarize. We are in talks with a lawyer about how to take legal action against him," a member of the group said. "We gave him a deadline, which is April. 15. We will take the issue to the court on April 25 at the latest."
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| Moon Dae-sung |
Regardless of the outcome, the legal action will likely save Moon's status with the IOC, where he is to serve on the athletes' council until 2016.
Following a two-year investigation, Kookmin concluded in February that Moon's 2007 thesis was plagiarized and took away his degree in sports psychology on March 6.
According to officials from the Seoul-based school, Monday, Moon filed a lawsuit against Kookmin in the Seoul Northern District Court on March 18.
''We received notification from the court on April 2 and we are still discussing how to respond to it,'' a school official said.
"It is a nullification suit against the school's decision to revoke his degree. We cannot reveal any more detailed information at this point."
Moon's representatives refused to comment. Moon, who won a gold medal at the Athens Olympics in taekwondo, recently rejoined the conservative Saenuri Party, which he was kicked out of in 2012 when the plagiarism accusations first emerged.
Moon's disputed paper, "Effect of Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation on Flexibility and Isokinetic Muscle Strength in Taekwondo Practitioners," is flagrant as a cut-and-paste job with him even Xeroxing factual errors and misspellings of the original content.
Kookmin does not doubt that it is favored to win its court battle against Moon. But Moon will be able to extend the litigation just long enough to keep his post in the IOC.
The IOC conducted its own probe into Moon's academic credentials before shelving it in December, citing the lack of a conclusive statement from Kookmin. IOC President Thomas Bach then said the ethics committee investigation could be reopened if "new elements emerge."
It now looks as if the IOC procrastinated on Moon's issue just long enough to avoid doing anything about it. Kookmin confirmed that it sent its investigation report on Moon to the IOC on March 27, but the sporting body is seemingly pretending it has never seen the document.
IOC spokesman Andrew Mitchell said, "We understand that Mr. Moon has appealed the decision of the university in front of the Korean court. Until there is a ruling, we have no further comment to make."
This means, presumably, the IOC will likely keep the issue under wraps until Moon's term in the IOC ends in two years, considering that legal disputes usually takes several years to finish before the Supreme Court if neither party bows out.
Angered by a lack of proper response from the Saenuri Party and Moon, members of Saha Grass Roots Network, a civic group in Moon's legislative district in Busan, plan to sue him for violating the Election Law by the end of the month.
"During his campaign, he lied that he did not plagiarize. We are in talks with a lawyer about how to take legal action against him," a member of the group said. "We gave him a deadline, which is April. 15. We will take the issue to the court on April 25 at the latest."
