[2022 National Audit] "First Lady Kim Geon-hee Published Forged Papers After Earning Doctorate"

Assemblyman Seodongyong Raises Suspicion of Fabrication in 2009 Design Forum Paper
"Beyond Plagiarism, Research Data Altered, Essentially Fabrication"
Co-author Received PhD Together with Professor Jeonseunggyu
Golf Practice Range Customer Survey Changed to Digital Content Mall Customer Survey

The paper titled "The Effect of Satisfaction with Golf Practice Range Usage on Repurchase Factors," published in the Korean Journal of Physical Education in November 2008, and the paper titled "The Effect of Satisfaction with Digital Content Usage on Repurchase Factors," authored by Mrs. Kim Geon-hee in February 2009 (Data provided by Assemblyman Seo Dong-yong's office)

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] After First Lady Kim Geon-hee obtained her doctoral degree, allegations have been raised that she forged another person's thesis ahead of her reappointment at Korea Polytechnic University.

On the 4th, during the National Assembly Education Committee's audit, Democratic Party lawmaker Seo Dong-yong pointed out, "The paper titled 'The Effect of Satisfaction with Golf Practice Facilities on Repurchase Factors' published in the 2008 Korean Journal of Physical Education was disguised as 'The Effect of Satisfaction with Digital Content on Repurchase Factors' published in the 2009 Korea Design Forum under First Lady Kim Geon-hee's name."

The survey results of 400 golf practice facility users from the golf practice paper were directly used as survey results of digital content mall users.

The paper titled "The Impact of Satisfaction with Golf Practice Facilities on Repurchase Factors," published in the Korean Journal of Physical Education in November 2008, and Mrs. Kim Geon-hee's paper "The Impact of Satisfaction with Digital Content on Repurchase Factors" both include the same survey results. The number of survey participants and satisfaction figures differ slightly. (Data provided by Assemblyman Seo Dong-yong's office)

Lawmaker Seo stated, "Except for the introduction, the English abstract, main body, and references are almost identical. In the golf facility paper, the survey respondents were 182 men and 108 women out of 290, but in the digital content paper, it changed to 108 men and 182 women, and then on the next page, the number of male and female respondents matches the golf facility paper again."

He continued, "The digital content paper includes the term 'lesson,' and the satisfaction scores from the golf facility paper, 6.49 and 2.17, changed slightly to 6.39 and 2.07 in the digital content paper. This is a falsified paper that fabricated satisfaction with digital content by pretending to conduct surveys and analyses on golf practice facility satisfaction that were never done. The spelling is incorrect, and the footnotes and references are a mess, making it hard to believe it is an academic journal paper," he added.

Professor Kim, a co-author of the digital content paper, received her doctorate in 2010 under the supervision of Professor Jeon Seung-gyu, who was also First Lady Kim's advisor. In 2006, Kim and Professor Jeon jointly translated a book titled "Digital Media Storytelling."

The paper titled "The Influence of Advertising Video Media and Non-Video Media as Incentive Elements for Participation in Design and Art on Participants' Perception: Focusing on the Seoul Design Olympic 2008," published in the 2009 Korea Design Forum (Vol.22), included Kim Yeosa as the second author. This paper contains many similarities to the article "The Influence of Advertising Video Media and Non-Video Media of Dance Performances on Audience Perception in Leisure Activity Participation," published in November 2008 in the Journal of the Korean Society of Sport Science. (Data provided by Seo Dong-yong's Office)

A suspicion has been raised that a paper by Professor Kim from the Department of Design at Gyeongin Women's University, in which First Lady Kim Geon-hee participated as the second author, titled "The Influence of Advertising Video Media and Non-Video Media as Participation-Inducing Elements in Design and Art on Participant Perception," is similar to a paper on dance performances published in the same issue. The dance performance paper is also suspected to be similar to a real estate sales advertisement, with the English abstracts of all three papers starting identically with "Real estate affects customers." (Provided by Office of Assemblyman Seo Dong-yong)

Lawmaker Seo emphasized, "Fabricating non-existent original research data is called 'forgery,' which is the most serious form of research misconduct. This goes beyond plagiarism, which uses or partially modifies another person's paper without citation; it is a forged paper that manipulates data as if non-existent experimental research was conducted."

Allegations of forgery were also raised regarding a paper by Professor Kim from the Department of Design at Gyeongin Women's University, where First Lady Kim was the second author. The paper, published in the same journal and issue, is titled 'The Effect of Advertising Video Media and Non-Video Media as Incentives for Participation in Design and Art on Participants' Perceptions: Focusing on the Seoul Design Olympics 2008' in the 2009 Korea Design Forum (Vol.22). This paper is suspected to have forged the paper titled 'The Effect of Advertising Video Media and Non-Video Media on Audience Perceptions in Dance Performance Participation,' published in the Korean Journal of Social Sports in November 2008.

Lawmaker Seo also pointed out that the dance performance paper is similar to a 2006 paper related to real estate sales advertisements. The English abstracts of all three papers start identically with 'Real estate affects customers.'

Jang Sang-yoon, Vice Minister of Education, is attending the full meeting of the Education Committee held at the National Assembly on the 9th, responding to questions from lawmakers. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

Concerns were also raised about the timing of the journal publications and the process of utilizing the papers. Lawmaker Seo said, "The publication timing coincided with Korea Polytechnic University's contract renewal and reappointment period. It is necessary to verify whether these papers were submitted as research achievements during the February 2009 contract renewal at Polytechnic University or during reappointments at Kookmin University or other universities." He added, "There was also an issue where, during the appointment process as an industry-academic adjunct professor at Polytechnic University, the employment period at the Korea Game Industry Association was extended to a non-existent period to meet the minimum four years of industry experience requirement on the resume." Deputy Minister of Education Jang Sang-yoon responded, "The Korea Polytechnic University falls under the Ministry of Labor's jurisdiction, and we will request data from the Ministry of Labor."

Lawmaker Seo stressed, "Such serious matters should not result in sloppy investigation outcomes like those at Kookmin University or evasion of verification like the Design Trend Society. The relevant papers must be verified according to proper procedures, and the results must be disclosed to the public."

When asked whether the academic society could verify the fraudulent papers, Deputy Minister Jang replied, "Issues of paper verification and research ethics have been continuously strengthened over time. In principle, the responsibility for verifying individual papers lies with the affiliated institutions. Verification standards differ by academic field, and each field is strengthening its ethical standards. It would be contrary to the trend of strengthening research ethics for the government to decide on verification. Even under current regulations, if there is a report, verification can be sufficiently conducted."