First lady Kim Keon Hee listen to President Yook Suk Yeol's keynote address during the 77th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, in this Sept. 2022 photo. Yonhap

Sookmyung Women's University's internal review has preliminarily concluded that first lady Kim Keon Hee plagiarized her master's thesis submitted to the university's graduate school of education, sources said Tuesday.

The university's research ethics committee sent the findings to Kim in late December, giving her until the end of this month to appeal the decision, according to the sources.

If the first lady disputes the conclusion, the committee plans to review her appeal before finalizing its conclusion, according to the university.

Kim has faced allegations of plagiarizing her 1999 thesis, submitted to the university's graduate school of education as part of her master's degree requirements. Sookmyung launched the investigation into the case in mid-December 2022. (Yonhap)