Education Committee Reports Six Individuals Including Former Sookdae President Jang Yoon-geum for Absence from National Audit

The National Assembly Education Committee held a plenary meeting on the 5th and decided to file charges against six witnesses, including former Sookmyung Women's University President Jang Yoon-geum, for reasons such as absence from the national audit and perjury.

National Assembly Building. Photo by Hyunmin Kim

At the meeting, the Education Committee passed a resolution on the "2024 National Audit Witness Prosecution Case" containing these details.

Among those included in the prosecution targets were former President Jang, who was selected as a witness for the national audit regarding allegations of plagiarism in First Lady Kim Geon-hee's master's and doctoral theses but failed to appear, Professor Seol Min-shin of Hankyong National University, and Kim Ji-yong, Chairman of the Board at Kookmin University.

In addition, Professor Kim Hyung-sook of Hanyang University, Kim Su-gi, CEO of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, and Oh Seung-geol, President of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, were also targeted for prosecution due to perjury and refusal to submit documents.

Originally, the draft submitted by the opposition party included National Education Committee Chairman Lee Bae-yong and Gyeonggi Province Superintendent of Education Lim Tae-hee as prosecution targets, but this was deferred at the request of the ruling party.

During the meeting, motions led by the opposition party to request audits from the Ministry of Education and the Board of Audit and Inspection based on the national audit results were also passed.

The opposition party demanded an audit from the Board of Audit and Inspection, stating that 27 cases were detected where National Education Committee Chairman Lee Bae-yong privately used vehicles owned by public institutions, which could violate the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act. They also argued that an audit was necessary regarding the circumstances under which Kim Geon-ho, a youth aide at the Ministry of Education, participated as a textbook author. Additionally, they requested an audit from the Ministry of Education concerning allegations of electronic blackboard corruption involving Gangwon Province Superintendent of Education Shin Kyung-ho and Incheon City Superintendent of Education Do Seong-hoon.

The ruling party requested to postpone the vote on the audit requests for further discussion, but when the opposition party did not accept this, the ruling party members protested and left the meeting room.

Meanwhile, the amendment to the Local Education Finance Grant Act, which aimed to extend the special provision on the burden of free education expenses for high schools and others for three years and was expected to be processed that day, was not passed.

Jo Jeong-hoon, the ruling party's secretary of the Education Committee, stated, "(This bill) was unilaterally and undemocratically handled at the bill subcommittee meeting on the 29th of last month, attended only by the Democratic Party," and requested the formation of a bill coordination committee. This request was accepted, leading to further discussions.