Police investigate hiring of Yoo Seung-min’s daughter at Incheon National University

Police are investigating allegations of preferential treatment in the hiring of Yoo Dam, 31, the daughter of former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min, as a professor at Incheon National University.

The Yeonsu Police Station in Incheon said Tuesday that it had received a complaint accusing university President Lee In-jae, members of the personnel office, hiring committee and records management team of violating the Public Records Management Act.

The complaint claims that the university failed to properly preserve recruitment documents related to Yoo’s hiring, which should have been permanently archived under institutional guidelines.

The complainant also called for a probe to determine whether all application records for faculty positions were destroyed.

Yoo was appointed as a full-time professor in the Department of International Trade within the College of Global Economics and Politics for the second semester of the 2025 academic year.

During a parliamentary audit on Oct. 28, Rep. Jin Sun-mi of the Democratic Party of Korea questioned Yoo’s appointment, saying there had been “many objections to the hiring of 31-year-old professor Yoo at Incheon National University."

She said Yoo “ranked near the bottom in the qualitative evaluation of her research papers, around 16th place with 18.6 points,” but “received perfect scores in education, career and quantitative assessments, which pushed her to second overall in the first round.”

Jin added that Yoo “was given top marks in career evaluation despite lacking study-abroad or corporate experience, while other applicants received much lower scores.”

Incheon National University has denied any wrongdoing, saying the review process was conducted “fairly and in accordance with internal regulations and guidelines.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.