Korea University in central Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Korea University said Thursday it has decided to nullify the 2010 admission of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk’s daughter after finding falsehoods in her high school records submitted for admission.
The announcement came two days after Pusan National University in the southeastern city of Busan voided the 2015 admission of Cho Min, the former minister’s daughter, into its medical school for using a false internship certificate and other forged documents in the application.
Korea University said it voided Cho Min’s acceptance to its college of life science and technology on Feb. 25 after learning that parts of her high school records in her admission application included falsehoods.
The school said it later notified Cho Min of the decision.
Cho Min’s admission cancellations from both institutions came after the Supreme Court convicted her mother, Chung Kyung-sim, in January for academic fraud, including forging a university president’s citation for the daughter, and other charges.
The mother was sentenced to four years in prison.
Later on Thursday, the former justice minister said on his Facebook page that his daughter has filed a lawsuit with a Seoul district court, seeking to overturn the university’s decision.
“The internship certificates from her mother’s criminal trial were not submitted for admission to the Korea University, and all they got was a (high school) student record summarizing such activities,” Cho Min’s lawyer claimed in a press release.
“Even though the student record had little effect on the admission or no causal relationship has been found, it’s too harsh to cancel the university admission based on the record and eventually invalidate the doctor’s license.”
The 2019 scandal involving the family of Cho Kuk, considered then one of the closest confidants of President Moon Jae-in, ended up sharply dividing the nation, prompting massive rallies both in support and against his justice minister nomination.
He left office just 35 days later.
Cho Min has sought a court injunction against the medical school admission nullification. A hearing on the injunction request is scheduled for next week.
(Yonhap)
