Cho Kuk on 'Kim Geon-hee Plagiarism Allegation': "Don't Expect Much, Just Do the Same"

Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, and his wife Kim Geon-hee (left), along with former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] Former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk criticized the People Power Party's presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol's camp for their explanation regarding Kim Gun-hee's thesis plagiarism allegations.

Earlier, on the 27th, Yoon's campaign headquarters distributed a 14-page document titled "Explanation Regarding Representative Kim Gun-hee's Allegations" to the media. The document categorized nine items including the alleged falsehoods about the application for a lecturer position at Suwon Women's University, training at New York University (NYU), and exhibition history at Samsung Plaza. While acknowledging some inflated or inaccurate entries in her career records, they repeatedly denied that these constituted outright falsehoods.

In response, on the 28th, former Minister Cho posted on his Facebook, criticizing, "The People Power Party defends Kim Gun-hee's 1999 master's thesis plagiarism allegations by saying it applies current standards to a thesis from 22 years ago," adding, "Conservative media also emphasize in their headlines that it is '22 years ago'."

He continued, "However, the People Power Party claimed that my 1989 master's thesis was plagiarized and needed verification, and conservative media stressed the necessity of verification through editorials and columns. Consequently, Seoul National University conducted the verification and announced the results," and added, "The People Power Party and conservative media pressured Seoul National University to verify my doctoral dissertation (1997) from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, leading to Seoul National University conducting the verification and announcing the results."

He further stated, "Even though the University of California, Berkeley School of Law declared it was not plagiarism," and added, "I do not ask for much. Just do the same."

Meanwhile, back in September 2019, when Cho Kuk was a nominee for Minister of Justice, controversy arose over allegations that parts of his master's thesis from Seoul National University Law School and doctoral dissertation from UC Berkeley School of Law were plagiarized. The university concluded that he violated research ethics guidelines, which was reported in the media.

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