<기사제목>Presidential Office to Discuss Verification Improvement Measures Following Jeong Soon-shin's Fall (Comprehensive)

Lee Dowoon Spokesperson "School Violence, Violation of the Right to Education"
Presidential Office "No 'Child School Violence' in Preliminary Questions"

On the 26th, the Presidential Office stated regarding the appointment and subsequent cancellation within a day of lawyer Jeong Soon-shin as the new head of the National Investigation Headquarters due to his child's school violence issue, "It is judged that there were shortcomings. We will thoroughly explore whether there are ways to improve the limitations within the legal scope."

Lee Do-woon, spokesperson for the Presidential Office, said at a briefing at the Yongsan Presidential Office that afternoon, "Currently, public official verification is conducted through publicly available information, legally accessible information, and reputation investigations, but this time, the issue was related to the candidate's child, not the candidate himself."

This explanation implies that documents such as the school records of children of high-ranking public official candidates were not included in the scope of public materials used for personnel verification.

Because of this, it appears that lawyer Jeong's son’s history of school violence, disciplinary committee results during high school, and related legal disputes were not identified.

Jeong Soon-shin (57), who was appointed as the second head of the National Investigation Headquarters on the 24th, resigned the day before after reports surfaced that his son, while attending a prestigious autonomous private high school as a first-year student in 2017, had continuously bullied classmates, resulting in forced transfer, and that he had filed a lawsuit to cancel the disciplinary action but ultimately lost in the first, second trials, and the Supreme Court.

The Presidential Office and the government are taking this issue of violence in educational settings seriously and plan to prepare fundamental measures not only to improve the personnel verification system but also to eradicate school violence.

Spokesperson Lee said, "President Yoon's position on school violence is clear," adding, "President Yoon views school violence as an infringement on the right to receive free and fair education and takes it very seriously. Relevant ministries are currently discussing fundamental countermeasures."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

A Presidential Office official responded to a reporter's question, "This is not the first time there has been a child-related issue; there were also scholarship allegations involving the child of former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Kim In-cheol and preferential medical school admission allegations involving the child of former Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Ho-young. It seems this system has not been improved until now and is only now being addressed. Or does it mean that child-related issues cannot be filtered out with the current system?" by saying, "There are legal regulations regarding verification of children, such as nationality, resident registration, and criminal records. However, student records and ongoing lawsuits, which were problematic this time, are not included."

He continued, "Candidates themselves are thoroughly verified, and while children or parents might be relevant, there are limitations to verification. However, that does not justify using improper means to collect data for verification. The Yoon Seok-yeol administration does not engage in such practices. We are reviewing whether there are ways to improve verification within the legal scope."

In response to a reporter's question, "It is difficult to create rules for issues related to children rather than the candidate himself at this time. Are there any alternatives? Even if not finalized, are there specific parts that can be changed?" he said, "The best verification is to gather as much information as possible, but the government has previously faced discussions about excessive collection of personal information, raising concerns about civilian surveillance. It is unlikely to go that far. Therefore, within the current legal framework, since this issue was raised, we will carefully explore improvement measures and share them at an appropriate time."

Regarding government-level improvement plans, he said, "School violence is a very serious issue and has been socially raised multiple times before. This issue involves not just isolated incidents of violence at schools but also the overall structure. We may hold meetings soon if necessary to announce comprehensive measures, including how to respond afterward."

In response to a reporter's question, "This was already reported in the media, and those who know are aware of the case. The question is whether it was truly unknown rather than a system failure," he explained, "Although the media reported it initially, the reports did not include real names but were anonymous, making it very difficult for unrelated parties to know. Therefore, it was not filtered out during the police reputation investigation. While some people knew, it was truly only known by a few, and most did not. That is why it was not caught during verification this time."

Regarding whether this personnel verification was conducted by the usual Ministry of Justice Personnel Information Management Team and finally verified by the Presidential Office, he said, "The verification system is operating as usual. However, a difference this time is that since it concerns a key police official, there was a verification process within the police, and the police issued a statement on this yesterday, as far as I know."

When asked about the question on the Presidential Office website asking, "Does the candidate, spouse, or direct relatives have any civil or administrative lawsuits as plaintiff or defendant?" he said, "Questions related to school violence are not included in the preliminary questionnaire. We will review improvement measures comprehensively, including this issue."

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