Na Kyung-won: "Criticism of Mom-Chance Is Misplaced... Is the Ruling Party Idle?"

Seoul National University Publishes Decision Document on Son Kim's Thesis
Seodong Yong: "Na Kyung-won Asked Seoul National University About Her Son"

Former Future United Party (currently People Power Party) lawmaker Na Kyung-won, who was indicted over the National Assembly fast-track (rapid processing agenda) clash incident on the 21st of last month, is answering reporters' questions before attending the first trial held at the Southern District Court in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Su-wan] Former Future United Party (now People Power Party) lawmaker Na Kyung-won has rebutted the controversy over her son being listed as a co-author on a research poster at Seoul National University College of Medicine, stating that the criticism of "mom's privilege" is misplaced.

On the 15th, Na posted on her Facebook, "I deeply regret Representative Seo's selective amplification and distortion by focusing only on a very small part without looking at the overall issue," adding, "I question whether this is something that should be addressed in a national audit. The ruling party is not in a position to be so idle."

Earlier, on the 14th, Seo Dong-yong, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea, disclosed the "Seoul National University Research Integrity Committee's decision document" obtained from SNU, stating, "The investigation results from SNU revealed that former lawmaker Na made an improper request related to her son."

According to the decision document, the SNU Research Integrity Committee judged that listing Na's son, Kim, as the fourth author on the poster titled "Preliminary Study on Cardiopulmonary Health Measurement in a Non-Laboratory Environment" was an "improper authorship attribution."

On the same day, Representative Seo emphasized, "If it were not for mom's privilege, Na's son would not have been able to conduct experiments in the SNU laboratory, nor would he have been improperly listed as a co-author on the research work," and called for "additional investigation by SNU into the improper private use of SNU facilities."

Kim worked as an intern in a Seoul National University College of Medicine professor's lab in 2014 while attending high school at St. Paul High School in the United States. The following year, he was listed as the first author on a poster presented at the IEEE EMBC (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference) held in the U.S. He was also listed as the fourth author on another poster presented at the same academic conference.

In response, former lawmaker Na claimed, "In 2014, I was not a member of the National Assembly. After the 2011 Seoul mayoral by-election, I did not run in the general election the following year and was a private citizen without any official authority until I returned to the Dongjak district by-election in 2014."

Regarding the poster on which her son was listed as the fourth author, she stated, "My son assisted in the research process and performed tasks required by the research team. The decision on authorship was not made by my son but by the research team and the supervising professor at the time."

She further emphasized, "My son already had a poster where he was listed as the first author (primary author), so the fact that he was listed as the fourth author (secondary author) on the poster was not used in any admission process or similar. Being the fourth author was a very common authorship listing process where his name was included as a research participant."

Meanwhile, Kim, Na's son, conducted experiments generating data related to the academic poster and simultaneously prepared for a U.S. science competition under the guidance of Professor Yoon at SNU College of Medicine from mid-July to early August 2014. This led to allegations of preferential treatment for the high school student using the SNU laboratory.

As the controversy continued, former lawmaker Na explained in September last year, "There was no preferential treatment. (The poster) was entirely done by my child. My child conducted the experiments in July and August of that year, then participated in the science competition and wrote the poster, all through a series of processes done by my child."