By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The presidential office postponed the appointment of Professor Cheong Jean-gon as senior secretary for education, science and culture Monday after he was accused of self-plagiarism.
The accusation comes amid efforts by embattled President Lee Myung-bak to regain public support by replacing his chief of staff and all seven senior presidential secretaries.
The main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) urged Cheong, 58, to step down, saying that his appointment flies in the face of Lee's pledge to make a fresh start following the beef row.
Cheong, a professor at Hanyang University in Seoul, asked Lee to put off his appointment until the academic circles make a fair judgment, a presidential spokesman said.
He issued a statement to offer an apology but claimed that his appointment was not related to the plagiarism issue at all.
The scholar published his article, titled ``Teachers' Role in Open Education,'' in a magazine of the Gangwon provincial educational institute in December 1996, sources said. However, he published almost the same paper, only with more lines added and a new title in another magazine of an institution affiliated with Hanyang University a year later, they said.
Cheong also distributed an article on punishment and its educational meaning to three other institutes, according to the sources. This article was published again in the December issue of a magazine by an education institute in 2001; a gazette of South Gyeongsang Province's Office of Education in the summer of 2002; and a monthly magazine of an educational agency in September the same year, they said.
Education circles criticized the duplication, claiming it is unethical for a scholar to do this even though it is not in violation of the law.
The professor insisted that it was neither plagiarism nor poor conduct because the papers were duplicated in periodicals, not scientific journals.
The President apologized last Thursday for having failed to recognize the people's safety concerns over U.S. beef and expressed hope that he could make a fresh start with his new secretaries.
Even before Lee's inauguration in late February, some of his aides and Cabinet ministers were accused of real estate speculation and plagiarism of their doctorate papers.
Park Mi-seok, former senior presidential secretary for social policy, resigned on April 28, about two months after Lee took office, over dubious assets and plagiarism in her dissertation.