Academic Group Reignites Plagiarism Debate Regarding Korea’s First Lady
At this point it is pretty clear that the first lady did rely on plagiarism for her Phd dissertation, but I don’t know what this group is hoping to accomplish that hasn’t already been done. She has already been mocked & shamed publicly and she apologized for her actions:
First lady Kim Keon-hee has come under fire again, as a group of professors has reignited the allegations that she plagiarized her Ph.D. dissertation and other published papers. She had been cleared of the allegations last month following an eight-month probe by her alma mater, Kookmin University, which stated ultimately that the “statute of limitations of five years for verifying the papers has expired.”
Korea Times
The group of 16 professors from 14 academic associations, called the Pan-academic National Verification Group for the Verification of Suspicions of Plagiarism of First Lady Kim Keon-hee, held a press conference to unveil their findings verifying Kim’s academic misconduct at the Press Center in Seoul, Tuesday. The group claimed that all of Kim’s academic works are “indisputably entangled with plagiarism,” and that they all violate basic academic standards.
According to the group’s findings, a total of 220 out of the 860 sentences in Kim’s Ph.D. dissertation that she produced when she attended Kookmin University’s Graduate School of Techno Design in 2008 were copied and pasted without citing the original sources.
Here appears to be the real reason this group has been formed:
Meanwhile, the ruling People Power Party (PPP) questioned the credibility of the Pan-academic National Verification Group’s findings, claiming that the group supports the DPK and has political intentions.
“As the group’s name may suggest, the verification group pretends to make a scholastic presentation on behalf of the academic community … However, the bottom line is that it is merely a political organization that supports DPK leader Lee Jae-myung,” PPP spokesperson Rep. Park Jung-ha commented on the PPP’s website, Tuesday.
Park said that some of the 14 academic associations that are part of the organization had openly supported Lee during the presidential campaign earlier in March and called on them to “stop deceiving people under the pretext of academic investigation.”
You can read more at the link, but this appears to all just be in retaliation for the ongoing investigation into Lee Jae-myung’s wife.
Nork sympathizers just want to continue to shame South Korea.
That said, if Kim really is guilty of plagiarism, then strip her of her PhD (that’s true for ANY academic discovered to be a fraud). As for writing a diss that’s under 900 sentences long, well, at 25 words per sentence and 250 words per page, 10 sentences per page yields a doctoral dissertation that’s under 90 pages long (in English, at least). That’s unbelievably short by US standards. Most US dissertations are at least book-length, at least by the standards of the academe that I remember. 100-150 pages might be okay for a Master’s thesis, but doctoral disses tend to be at least twice as long.
It’s pretty clear that plagiarism was not considered to be a violation of ethics in Korea until recently. Currently, it serves a useful tool to attack opposing politicians and their family members. I’m guessing those throwing rocks toward Yoon’s wife live in glass houses in this respect
@charliem, that is a good point. Some journalist should check the dissertations of all the academics attacking the first lady and see if any of their passages were plagiarized.
@Kevin Kim, according to the article the Kookmin University’s investigation found some plagiarism, but determined that it was only inappropriate according to current standards not what they were back then.
After a great deal of thought, consultation with a number of academics, and research on past situations such as this, i feel if Kim really is guilty of plagiarism, then strip her of her PhD (that’s true for ANY academic discovered to be a fraud).
As for writing a diss that’s under 900 sentences long, well, at 25 words per sentence and 250 words per page, 10 sentences per page yields a doctoral dissertation that’s under 90 pages long (in English, at least). That’s unbelievably short by US standards.
Most US dissertations are at least book-length, at least by the standards of the academe that I remember. 100-150 pages might be okay for a Master’s thesis, but doctoral disses tend to be at least twice as long.
But keep in mind, this is only my opinion.
GIKorea
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Kevin Kim
3 hours ago
@Kevin Kim, according to the article the Kookmin University’s investigation found some plagiarism, but determined that it was only inappropriate according to current standards not what they were back then.
… Kim’s Ph.D. dissertation that she produced when she attended Kookmin University’s Graduate School of Techno Design in 2008 …
The Shin Jeong-ah plagiarism case was in 2007. Were the rules not tightened up “back then” by 2008???
“All sorts of major problems in our society have come to the forefront because of one individual. Who knows, maybe we need to thank her!
For starters, we should thank Shin for how she unintentionally brought out the many problems with how professors are hired in the Korean academic community. Professors at Dongguk University opposed hiring her, suggesting that her diploma was fake and that she had plagiarized the dissertation she had submitted, but to no avail.”
Hankyoreh, Sep.15,2007 08:25 KST
Who was thanking Shin Jeong-ah so prematurely?
Cho Guk, Professor of Law, Seoul National University
Right-wing US logic:
“well they all do it, what’s the big deal, they’re just using this to further the NORK Chinaman commy agenda, and oh by the way we need Yoon because he’s our ass-kissing useful America’s puppet which will do America’s biddings”
To be fair, plagiarism during college doesn’t have that much of a bite compared to let’s say accepting bribes or a sex scandal. or some of the other allegations surrounding the First Lady
However, when it comes to the current First Lady the question is does her supposed tendency to break the rules and possibly the law, stop with the alleged plagiarism and such or has it been carried over to the Presidency?
It’s no secret that she has control and influence over her husband, if one takes into account the videos during ceremonies where she pulls her husband into line or holds him so he won’t go further or where he suddenly puts his drink down after she gives them the look.
And it won’t be surprising if she does a Choe Soon-sil and influences her husband so that he will hand out favors to her family and associates, such as the sole bid to a company owned by one of her associates to remodel the new Presidential residence near Yongsan.
(In Korea by law, all government contracts have to be decided by bidding, although an exception can be made if let’s say the certain product or services can be provided by one bidder only)
Of course, the above means she would come under investigation and considering that the current President has the tendency to go above and beyond to protect those around him, there is a possibility that he would use his powers to try to protect the First Lady.
In which case, a potential abuse of power will have occured leaving the current President wide open to impeachment and a repeat of history.