Cho Kuk's daughter

Her dubious academic career frustrates young people

Suspicions are swirling over justice minister nominee Cho Kuk and his family while President Moon Jaein is coming under growing pressure to withdraw his nomination.

Cho is losing support rapidly from young people as the scandal is now centered on the suspicious academic career of his 28-year-old daughter. It has been found that she was listed as a lead author for a pathology paper published in a renowned medical journal after working as a high school intern for only two weeks in 2008. An investigation is now underway into how she achieved that, and whether this helped her enroll at Korea University in 2010.

She also received scholarships totaling 12 million won ($9,900) for three years from 2016 to 2018 while attending a medical graduate school in Busan although she flunked twice during the period. The scholarships were from a private foundation run by a professor who helped her as an academic adviser and early this year became the director of Busan Medical Center.

The case of Cho's daughter is more frustrating for young people than all the fraud, corruption and tax-evasion allegations leveled against Cho's family because Cho, a law professor at Seoul National University, has long promoted equal opportunity in education and the abolition of elite schools. Some students at Seoul National and Korea universities are now planning to hold candlelit protests to urge the withdrawal of Cho's nomination. The school's websites are filled with posts calling Cho a "hypocrite," and comparing this case to a high-profile academic fraud case involving the daughter of Choi Soonsil, the longtime confidant of the now-jailed former President Park Geunhye.

Medical students are also up in arms. The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences decided to hold an emergency board meeting amid the angry response from students. one post written by a student on its website reads, "It took me three years of research and hard work to be listed as a writer of a paper while attending medical school. But Cho's daughter earned this after working as an intern for two weeks. My fault is that I don't have a father like Cho."

Cho said Thursday he and his family are taking the time to reflect on their lives, indicating that he will not step down and will explain all in a confirmation hearing, if held. "We should have behaved more prudently. It cannot be said we did nothing wrong just because we did not violate the law," he said. "I and my family have had a lot of benefits from society."

But Cho's daughter is surely just another case showing the moral laxity of the Korean elite. If Moon pushes ahead with Cho's appointment as justice minister, more young people may turn their backs on the liberal President. Some analysts are predicting that Cho's case may also be a crucial factor in the general election next year.