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| Justice minister nominee Cho Kuk enters the lobby of his office building in downtown Seoul, Wednesday, after answering questions from the press about suspicions surrounding the academic career of his daughter. / Yonhap |
By Kim Jae-heun
Suspicions surrounding the academic career of justice minister nominee Cho Kuk's daughter are not dying down despite his attempts to explain them away. Rather, they are continuing to grow with new allegations emerging.
It was found that Cho's daughter received an award from the president of Dongyang University and recorded this on her resume when applying for Pusan National University's medical graduate school in 2014. The award certified her hours of community service participating in the school's project to make English education books for younger students.
But the school president told a local daily that he never approved such an award.
The suspicions grew bigger as Cho's wife is currently a professor at Dongyang University and some suspect she could have exercised her influence to ensure the award went to her daughter.
As a result of the allegations, prosecutors searched the office of Cho's wife and other offices at the university in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday, to secure documents related to the award.
But Cho attempted to refute the claims on Wednesday. "My daughter actually went to the school to teach English to middle and high school students. She did serve her community service hours and received a certificate for it," Cho said while walking into his office in Seoul.
However, Cho failed to give clarification for another suspicion that his daughter received a certificate for an internship program at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) although she only appeared at the institute on two occasions. The full length of the internship was three weeks.
The internship at KIST was another record she used to apply for medical school at Pusan National University.
It is alleged that the favorable treatment was possible due to ties between Cho's wife and her friend who was a professor at KIST. Prosecutors also searched the KIST offices during their massive searches on Aug. 27.
