KU students urge revoking admission for Cho's daughter
Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk walks to his car after visiting his wife Chung Kyung-sim at Seoul detention center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. / Yonhap
By Kim Jae-heun
Korea University students are urging the school to revoke the admission of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk's daughter, threatening to hold a protest against what they claim to be admissions fraud.
Speculation has been rampant that Cho Min, 28, was admitted to the Seoul-based university after her mother created fake documents to enhance her daughter's chances of gaining entrance to one of the country's top schools.
Last week, the prosecution filed three additional charges against Chung Kyung-sim, Cho's mother, involving the college admissions and her investments in a private equity fund, leading more students to call on the school to take action.
Chung, an English professor at Dongyang University, allegedly forged various documents certifying her daughter's internships at prominent local institutions, and got her name placed as the lead author of a research paper published in “The Korean Journal of Pathology” when she was still in high school, which helped her be admitted to Korea University.
When the accusations surfaced, the school authorities said they would decide whether to cancel her admission after the results of the prosecution's investigation were made public.
However, they reversed this, saying there needed to be an additional review even after Chung was charged with forgery of the documents used in her daughter's admission.
A Korea University student put a hand-written poster on a bulletin board on campus recruiting organizers for the protests and urging students to join the demonstrations.
The student said in an interview with Yonhap News that he was angry at the school applying a double standard for a person with an elite family background.
“Despite the evidence revealed related to Cho's falsified academic achievements, the school has shown a dubious stance on it and I am very angry,” the student said.
Korea University students have held several rallies on their campus in Anam, eastern Seoul, since August, urging the school authorities to explain about Cho's admission and to conduct a thorough internal investigation into the matter.
After the school announced it would not revoke Cho's admission despite the prosecution charging her mother, students said they would no longer pay into the school development fund.
As the controversy grew, Korea University President Jeong Jin-taek posted an announcement on the school's website stating the school was handling the issue with clear principles and rules. He clarified the university's position, saying it would revoke Cho's admission if it found a critical flaw in her application.
“If we find a critical flaw in the student's application we will revoke her admission through established procedures. We are still checking for the controversial documents,” Jeong said.
However, he added that the school had disposed of all student application documents submitted in 2010 as per internal regulations so could not confirm that Cho had submitted falsified documents.
Jeong added that he expects the prosecution to reveal concrete evidence of the document fabrication and that was why the school authorities said they would make decision after the investigation was concluded.