[2025 National Assembly Audit] Kim Jaewon: "Korea National University of Arts Appointed Runner-up, Excluding Top-ranked Candidate"

Kim Jaewon, member of the National Innovation Party. Courtesy of Kim Jaewon's office

Concerns have been raised that the Korea National University of Arts appointed the second-ranked candidate, rather than the top-ranked candidate selected by vote, as the Dean of the Traditional Arts School.

According to materials submitted by Assemblyman Kim Jaewon of the National Innovation Party, a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, on October 20, the Korea National University of Arts appointed Professor A, who was the runner-up in the faculty vote, as the Dean of the Traditional Arts School in 2024, instead of the top-ranked candidate selected by the professors' vote.

At the Korea National University of Arts, the deans of each school are typically appointed through a process in which the top-ranked candidate is chosen by a vote within the school, then reviewed by the university's personnel committee, and finally appointed by the president. However, Professor B, who was selected as the top candidate at the time, was reportedly not even included in the list for the personnel committee's review.

Assemblyman Kim claimed, "There are suspicions that then-President Kim Daejin pushed for the appointment of Dean A based on the reasoning that 'the position of dean should not be limited to departments with a large number of faculty, but should also be held by those from smaller departments.'"

Assemblyman Kim also reported that Dean A had previously faced controversy over research ethics violations due to submitting the same critical essay to multiple academic journals and media outlets. In addition, a 2020 paper titled "The Significance of Restoring Unchang Seong Gyeok and Jinju Gyobang Dance" was found to have a plagiarism rate of 16%.

Furthermore, Assemblyman Kim explained that in a local government subsidy project involving Dean A, approximately 260 million won out of a total of 400 million won in expenditures lacked proper documentation. There were also indications of misuse, such as including alcohol expenses during meals and personal vehicle fuel costs, and it was discovered that a publication celebration was held under a different name from the organization that received the subsidy. In connection with this, about 5 million won was reportedly recovered.

Assemblyman Kim emphasized, "Unilateral personnel decisions that disregard procedures must not be repeated," and stressed the need to strengthen personnel verification procedures, including checks on research ethics violations and the appropriateness of subsidy execution.

On the same day, during the National Assembly audit by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, Korea National University of Arts President Pyeon Jangwan responded to Assemblyman Kim's inquiry by stating, "We will conduct verification regarding the dean in question and report back."