Kim In-cheol and Family All Receive Fulbright Scholarships "Selection Was Fair"

Candidate's Side: "Consider Alternative Regarding Applicant's Family Background and Scholarship Selection Process"

Kim In-cheol, the nominee for Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, is entering the confirmation hearing preparation office set up at the Korea Educational Facilities Safety Institute in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 14th. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The camp of Kim In-cheol, the nominee for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, stated that the fact that all members of his family received Fulbright scholarships was a "fair selection."

On the 27th, the Ministry of Education's confirmation hearing preparation team announced that the Fulbright scholarship selection process was conducted fairly according to procedures and standards.

The preparation team said, "Continuously raising issues about the selection of the nominee's family as beneficiaries solely because the nominee is the president of the Fulbright Alumni Association is an unfounded exaggeration of suspicion."

The team explained, "The consistent and firm position of those involved is that factors unrelated to the purpose of the Fulbright scholarship program, such as the applicant's family background, cannot be considered at all in the selection process."

The team further explained, "The Korea-U.S. Education Commission consists of a total of 10 members (5 Koreans appointed by the Minister of Education and 5 Americans appointed by the U.S. Ambassador to Korea). Among the 5 Korean members, 2 are ex officio government officials, ensuring that external influence is thoroughly blocked during the selection process."

The team added, "It is fundamentally impossible for the president of the alumni association, which was established for the purpose of academic exchange and cooperation between the two countries, to be involved in the selection of scholarship recipients."

It was revealed that while Kim, the nominee, was serving as the president of the Korea Fulbright Alumni Association, his daughter received a scholarship, and it has now been found that his son and the entire family also benefited from the scholarship.

Kim received a scholarship from 1996 to 1997 and worked as a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. His spouse, while serving as a professor at Soongsil University, received support from the scholarship program from 2004 to 2005 and worked as an exchange professor at Temple University in the U.S. The daughter attended Cornell University for her master's program from 2014 to 2016, and the son attended Columbia University for his master's program from 2016 to 2018, both on Fulbright scholarships.

On this day, lawmakers from the Democratic Party belonging to the National Assembly's Education Committee demanded the submission of explanatory materials.

Democratic Party lawmakers on the Education Committee pointed out, "The fact that the entire family of nominee Kim In-cheol benefited from the Fulbright scholarship program, which selects only a small number of people each year and is known for its high competition rate, raises suspicions that the nominee may have unduly influenced the selection process of scholarship recipients."

The Democratic Party lawmakers on the Education Committee stated, "Considering that the Fulbright scholarship benefits originate from support by the government of the Republic of Korea, it is unavoidable to criticize that the entire family used 'tax theft' to cover their study abroad expenses in the U.S.," adding, "They privatized a national scholarship benefit that prioritizes students with less academic experience in the U.S."

They criticized, "The Korea-U.S. Education Commission, which oversees scholarship affairs, refuses to submit most materials related to the nominee's family citing privacy invasion and personal information protection," and "The Ministry of Education is showing irresponsibility in the failure to submit materials, and the nominee is also not submitting materials to clarify the suspicions."

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