Korean Air chairman's son to be probed over illicit college admission
Cho Won-tae / Yonhap
The education ministry will send a team of officials to a local university next week to look into suspicions that the son of Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho gained illicit admission to the school 20 years ago.
Cho Won-tae, president of the national flag carrier, is the latest member of the Cho family to come under public scrutiny after his two sisters and mother underwent police questioning over alleged abuse of employees and others under their influence.
Cho, 43, is suspected of entering Inha University in Incheon, west of Seoul, in 1998 by transferring from a two-year college in the United States, even though he didn't meet the credit requirement for such a transfer. The school is run by a foundation established by the family's Hanjin Group.
The suspicions were investigated 20 years ago and the then education ministry determined that irregularities were involved in Cho's admission. The ministry demanded disciplinary action against school officials involved in the admission but didn't go as far as to cancel Cho's admission.
The case drew renewed public attention as the family came under public outrage.
On Wednesday, the education ministry said it will send a team of five veteran officials to the university to look into Cho's admission and how the school has been dealing with such transfers.
"We're going to determine the exact facts as to the suspicions of illicit admission, and if irregularities are found to have been involved, we're going to sternly hold those involved responsible," a ministry official said.
It is questionable, however, how far the probe can go because many of the related documents are believed to have been destroyed.
The school said it will cooperate with the investigation but denied allegations of illicit admission. (Yonhap)