'Kookmin University Finally Refuses to Submit Meeting Minutes in Kim Geon-hee Thesis Damage Lawsuit'

School Cites Unclear Grounds for Filing Compensation Lawsuit

Kookmin University

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] Kookmin University has ultimately refused the court's order to submit materials related to the investigation of plagiarism allegations in the doctoral dissertation of Kim Geon-hee, wife of President Yoon Seok-yeol.

On the 27th at around 10 a.m., Judge Lee Jun-gu of the Seoul Southern District Court Civil Division 11 held the third hearing of the damages lawsuit filed by the Kookmin University Alumni Emergency Response Committee (Alumni ERC) against Kookmin Academy (Kookmin University).

On this day, the university stated that it could not submit the minutes of the preliminary investigation committee of the Research Ethics Committee, citing the unclear grounds for the damages claim by the Alumni ERC.

Accordingly, the court judged that the university did not submit the documents despite the document submission order and decided to record this in the trial records.

Earlier, at the first hearing, the plaintiff Alumni ERC requested the submission of the minutes of the preliminary investigation committee as evidence when Kookmin University decided not to proceed with the main investigation into Kim’s research misconduct allegations, and Judge Lee accepted this claim and ordered Kookmin University to submit the minutes.

However, on the originally scheduled second hearing on the 18th of last month, Kookmin University did not submit the minutes, leading to a postponement of the hearing at the plaintiff’s request, and the university again did not submit the minutes at the resumed second hearing.

The court urged, "Rather than just waiting for the document submission, the plaintiff should further supplement the factual grounds for the damages claim and explore other evidentiary methods for proof."

The next hearing is scheduled for December 8 at 10:50 a.m.

The Alumni ERC filed a damages lawsuit in November last year, claiming that Kookmin University damaged the honor of its graduates by not initiating the main investigation into Kim’s doctoral dissertation research misconduct allegations last September, citing the expiration of the verification period.

Earlier this month, Kookmin University announced that after re-investigating four papers related to Kim’s dissertation, it concluded that three papers, including the doctoral dissertation, did not constitute research misconduct. The remaining one paper was concluded as "verification impossible."

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