Former KIST Center Director: "Jo Guk's Daughter Stopped Internship After Three Days... Heard She Only Slept Face Down"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Testimony in court revealed that Jo Mo, the daughter of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, showed an unfaithful attitude during classes at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), one of the places accused of inflating her internship experience.

Professor Jung Byung-hwa, who worked as the head of the Molecular Recognition Research Center at KIST, testified on the 18th at the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 25-2 (Presiding Judges Lim Jeong-yeop, Kwon Seong-su, Kim Seon-hee) during the continuation trial of Professor Jeong Gyeong-sim of Dongyang University. Regarding Jo, he said, "She was a student who came and went very briefly, so I don't have any special memories," but when asked by a senior lab member why Jo stopped her internship after three days, he said he heard comments such as "The student was somewhat like that, just lying down and sleeping."

He added, "So I had nothing more to say and did not think about looking into the student any further," he testified.

The prosecution charged Jeong Gyeong-sim, wife of former Minister Cho, with inflating Jo's internship experience at KIST in 2013 to aid her daughter's medical school entrance. The prosecution believes that although Jo participated in the internship for only 2 to 3 days in July 2011, Jeong Gyeong-sim obtained a certificate through former KIST director Lee Gwang-ryeol stating that Jo participated for three weeks.

They also believe that the certificate was fabricated to include specific details such as "5 days a week, 8 hours a day, total 120 hours" and descriptions like "participated diligently" for the medical school entrance. Professor Jung Byung-hwa, who was the head of the research center at the time, testified that he granted permission after hearing about Jo's intention to participate in the internship through former director Lee Gwang-ryeol, a classmate of Jeong Gyeong-sim. Based on lab entry records and other evidence, he stated that Jo first came to work for the internship on July 20 and was last seen on the morning of the 22nd.

Professor Jung also refuted claims made by Jeong Gyeong-sim and Jo during the prosecution's investigation. Regarding the claim that Jo translated English papers during her internship, he said, "Rather than translating, she was given related English papers to read," adding, "No matter how much you wash experimental tools, you need to understand what experiment it is, so it was meant for studying."

Professor Jung testified that he never wrote the KIST internship certificate submitted by Jo to Seoul National University College of Medicine, nor did he ever give permission to former director Lee Gwang-ryeol to write it.

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