FIRST LADY'S PLAGIARISM ALLEGATION

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Kookmin University has announced the results of its re-investigation into the plagiarism allegation of First Lady Kim Kun-hee's dissertations. Three theses, including her doctoral dissertation, were ruled not plagiarized while the remaining one was found "unverifiable." These results stand in contrast to the education ministry's inspection result that claimed the university's thesis review had been sloppy.

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Four of First Lady Kim Kun-hee's theses were suspected of plagiarism. One doctoral dissertation and three journal papers were questioned. During the past presidential election, her theses were accused of plagiarism and poor quality. Her thesis was so lacking in quality that the wrongly translated phrase "member Yuji" was copied without correction. This thesis was found to have a serious level of plagiarism at 40% when run through a simple plagiarism verification program. The plagiarism rate for her doctoral dissertation was also found to be 17%. But the outcome of Kookmin University's re-investigation was different. The university ruled that three of her theses, including her doctoral dissertation and the paper containing translation errors, are not fraudulent research activities. The university admitted that there were excessive use of quotations and insufficient expressions. But it noted that given the design graduate school's nature of focusing on real business and practicality and the author's independent research activities, research quality cannot be subject to the determination of illegal actions. However, verification of one journal paper was difficult because all the materials that were available for the review had disappeared. These findings allow Kim to maintain her doctoral degree from the university. Kookmin University had conducted a preliminary investigation into the controversial theses in September 2021, but did not carry out a main probe because the five-year verification limitation was over. However, when the ministry argued that the time limitation rule was terminated and asked for follow-up measures, the university started re-investigating the papers last November. The university maintained its stance that in principle, a thesis older than five years is not eligible for verification as it announced the findings. The university also plans to request an authoritative interpretation from the Ministry of Government Legislation.