Candidate Im Hye-sook: "I Acknowledge My Children's Dual Citizenship and Will Renounce It... Plagiarism in My Thesis Is Not True"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Im Hye-sook, the nominee for Minister of Science and ICT, actively refuted allegations raised by opposition lawmakers ahead of her confirmation hearing, including violations of the Nationality Act concerning her children and accusations of plagiarism in her academic papers.

Regarding the controversy over her two daughters holding dual nationality, Im acknowledged the violation of regulations and expressed her intention to renounce their U.S. citizenship. Previously, Park Dae-chul, a member of the People Power Party, pointed out that Im's two daughters, born in 1993 and 1998 respectively, hold dual U.S. nationality obtained during her studies and work in the United States. He noted that they were required to choose one nationality or submit a pledge to forgo exercising U.S. nationality rights in Korea before turning 22, which was not fulfilled.

Im stated, "During this hearing process, I became aware of the relevant Nationality Act provisions. My two children have not used their U.S. nationality to receive benefits in Korea," but also admitted, "I sincerely regret that the dual nationality status has been maintained despite the Nationality Act regulations." She added, "As my two children wish to hold Korean nationality, we have begun the process of renouncing their U.S. citizenship, and I will ensure that their nationality issues are resolved according to the U.S. renunciation procedures."

She also strongly denied the renewed allegations related to her academic papers. On this day, Heo Eun-ah, a member of the People Power Party, raised plagiarism suspicions after comparing and analyzing a 2005 master's thesis by Im's student and a 2006 journal paper co-authored by Im and her husband, who were listed as the first and third authors respectively. The student, A, submitted a thesis titled "Analysis of FMO in H.264 and Study on Hybrid Error Concealment Methods" in December 2005 for her master's degree defense. A few days later, on January 2 of the following year, Im published a journal paper in the Journal of the Korea Communications Society with her husband, Professor Im Mo of Konkuk University, as the first author and herself as the third author, which was found to be nearly identical. Heo criticized that the couple received research funding from ULSI while submitting a summary of the student's master's thesis, calling it "using funds intended for original research for a summarized thesis."

Heo also alleged a "triangular plagiarism" involving Im, another student B, and her husband, Professor Im Mo. The main content of a paper co-authored by Im, her husband, and B in July 2004 was said to be virtually identical to B's master's thesis submitted in January 2005.

However, Im actively refuted these claims as untrue. Regarding the accusation that the journal paper was published to receive government funding, she explained, "We were already participating in the 'University IT Research Center Development Support Project' by the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion (IITA) with my student, and both the student's master's thesis and the journal paper are part of the results of this project. Therefore, the claim that the journal paper was published to obtain government funding is not true."

On the claim of fragmenting the student's master's thesis, she clarified, "The student's master's thesis mentioned in the article is noted as 'submitted in 2005,' but in fact, it was submitted in January 2006 due to a simple notation error. The journal paper with the student as the first author was submitted earlier (October 2005), followed by the master's thesis (January 2006), and the journal paper with my husband as the first author was also submitted around the same time (January 2006). Therefore, the claim that the student's thesis was fragmented is not accurate."

Regarding why her husband was the first author of the journal paper published in January 2006, she explained that it was because he "proposed and provided the core research ideas, mathematical analysis methods, and key analysis codes (algorithms), and wrote the paper."

Im strongly denied the plagiarism allegations, stating, "Using plagiarism detection software, the similarity between the paper with my husband as the first author and the student's thesis was 18%, and the similarity between my husband's paper and the student's journal paper was 4%."

She emphasized, "In science and engineering research, it is common for professors and graduate students to work on a single project, so the content of theses and journal papers can be similar. The research ethics and publication ethics manuals for science and engineering also recognize this as a customary and important academic activity."

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