Search and Seizure Conducted on DC Inside, Eight Individuals Investigated
Seven Cleared of Obstruction of Business Charges
Regarding last year's Yonsei University 2025 academic year early admission natural sciences essay exam question leak incident, the police concluded that the questions were not leaked to any specific online community before the exam started.
On the 9th, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Public Crime Investigation Unit announced that among the eight individuals who posted the Yonsei University early admission essay questions on the online community DC Inside, only one was sent to prosecution without detention on charges of obstruction of business.
The examinee sent to prosecution was found to have committed cheating by taking photos of the exam paper that had been distributed early due to an invigilator's mistake and solving the problems using ChatGPT. This examinee was caught after posting a message on DC Inside stating that they had used ChatGPT after the exam ended. However, it was investigated that this examinee failed the early admission process.
The police conducted a search and seizure of DC Inside, which was identified as the platform where the question leak occurred, and identified eight individuals who wrote related posts, but the remaining seven were cleared of charges.
It was confirmed that they posted photos of the exam paper and other materials online after the essay exam time had ended. A police official stated, "It is difficult to apply charges of obstruction of business."
Students exiting after taking the 2025 academic year early admission essay exam at Yonsei University Sinchon Campus, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul last October Photo by Yonhap News
One examinee who received the exam paper early also posted a message indicating that "there is a geometric figure in a specific question," but the police explained that it was difficult to judge this as a question leak.
The unprecedented incident of college entrance exam questions being leaked before the exam occurred during the 2025 academic year early admission natural sciences essay exam held last October at Yonsei University's Sinchon Campus in Seoul.
The original exam start time was 2 p.m., but the invigilators at the exam site mistakenly thought it was 1 p.m. and distributed the exam papers, answer sheets, and scratch papers at 12:55 p.m., five minutes early. The invigilators realized their mistake and collected the exam papers 15 minutes later at 1:10 p.m.
However, claims that some exam questions were leaked online subsequently arose. After the exam ended, photos of the exam paper and scratch answers, apparently taken by examinees, were posted on online communities.
In response, Yonsei University filed a complaint with the police against the examinees who took photos of the early admission essay exam questions and posted them online on charges of obstruction of business. Additionally, they submitted an additional complaint requesting proof of the overall fairness of the exam. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Public Crime Investigation Unit conducted a search and seizure at the DC Inside headquarters located in Gangnam-gu, Seoul last year, securing related data such as the internet protocol (IP) addresses of the post authors and identified eight leakers.
However, separate from this, confusion grew due to legal battles between examinees protesting the question leak and the school, escalating into court disputes. Ultimately, the lawsuit filed by some essay exam takers claiming that the fairness of the exam was compromised due to the question leak was concluded in December last year when the examinees submitted a withdrawal of the lawsuit to the court.
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