South Korea's First Lady faces allegations of plagiarising master's thesis, university waits for her reply

A University in South Korea is investigating allegations of plagiarism and academic misconduct against South Korean First Lady Kim Keon-hee. Kim was accused of plagiarising her master’s thesis, adding more trouble for impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as he struggles to hold on to his office.

Back in 2022, Sookmyung Women’s University launched a review after Kim was accused of falsifying the dissertation she submitted to the institution’s graduate school of education in 1999 while she was pursuing her master’s degree. The private university presented its report to Kim last December.

She now has until the end of this month to contest the finding. According to Yonhap, if the president’s wife appeals against the decision, the University would consider her request before finalising the results.

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This is not the first time Kim has faced allegations of misconduct. She has been accused of stock market manipulation, interference in election nomination and other controversies regarding her academic credentials. Back in 2022, South Korea’s Kookmin University cleared Kim of plagiarism after a months-long probe into her doctoral dissertation.

The South Korean first lady earned her PhD in design from the school in 2008. Sookmyung University’s latest revelation came after the South Korean parliament on Wednesday rejected a revote on two bills seeking special investigations into Yoon’s botched martial law bid and allegations surrounding Kim. Before being impeached, the president previously vetoed the bill targeting his wife.

Following the voting, South Korea’s main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Korea, vowed to keep on reintroducing the bill until it passes. The party accused Yoon’s ruling People Power Party of defending the “leader of the insurrection ring”. Meanwhile, a court in Seoul has approved a new arrest warrant against the impeached South Korean leader.

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The new warrant was issued after Yoon’s security team resisted investigators’ attempt to take him into custody last week. Amid the chaos, acting President Choi Sang-mok urged law enforcement officials to avoid physical confrontation with Yoon’s bodyguards when they tried to detain him.

Yoon is currently holed up in his presidential residence in South Korea since he was impeached by the National Assembly on December 14. However, an opposition lawmaker claimed to KBS radio on Wednesday that Yoon had left the compound and was hiding in a “third location”. Despite the rumours, the presidential office maintained that Yoon is still at his home and the South Korean police assured that they were tracking Yoon’s whereabouts as the anti-corruption agency strategises how to apprehend him.

With inputs from agencies.