Democratic Party Recruits Jodongin and Choigiil Actively Address Allegations of 'Speculative Startups' and 'Paper Retractions'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] Jo Dong-in, CEO of Mittelstand and a recruit of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Professor Choi Ki-il of Konkuk University have actively clarified the allegations against them.

On the 30th, CEO Jo stated in a press release, "It is very regrettable that despite clearly revealing the facts, intentionally exaggerated and distorted reports have been made." He had been criticized for allegedly engaging in so-called "spec-building startups" by founding three companies (Divine Move, Plannative, Dynamote) within a week and simultaneously closing them after 2 years and 3 months.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

CEO Jo rebutted, "The decision to close was made to reduce the burden," adding, "Maintaining business registrations for four companies alone incurs significant costs."

He explained the reasons for closure, saying, "Divine Move was closed due to management difficulties, Dynamote was terminated because the distribution business it was conducting did not yield results, and Plannative's startup education business was transferred to Mittelstand." He also emphasized that the allegations of omitted sales in the companies were "misreports."

Regarding the claim that his startup experience was used as "spec-building" for awards and achievements, he called it a "contradictory speculation." He stated, "If founding and closing companies were specs, they would have to be of value to be utilized, but there is nowhere to use them," and added, "My business activities, along with contributions to revitalizing the local startup culture, were recognized, but operating multiple companies cannot be the reason for awards."

Professor Choi addressed media reports about a paper being retracted due to plagiarism, explaining, "The paper in question was authored during a joint research process in which I participated," and "A co-researcher submitted it alone to another academic journal first, which was an error I was unaware of beforehand."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He stated, "The related research output was a manuscript reflecting personal views written during the joint research process, and there was a misunderstanding due to failure to cite the source," emphasizing, "It was only a contribution to a publication unrelated to research performance recognition, and I clearly state that it was not submitted to a Korean Research Foundation registered (candidate) journal."

Professor Choi added, "Nevertheless, out of academic conscience, I acknowledged responsibility for the mistake, requested withdrawal and retraction of the submission, and accepted the suspension of submission privileges."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.