Fatherland admitted to conspiracy for’daughter entrance exams’, own trial also became disadvantageous

Cho Kook, former Minister of Justice (left) and his wife, Kyung-Shim Chung, a professor at Dongyang University. Yonhap News·News 1

On the 23rd, Criminal Division 25-2 of the Seoul Central District Court (Deputy Judge Lim Jeong-yeop Kwon Seong-soo, Senior Judge Kim Sun-hee) was sentenced to four years in prison at a trial by Professor Jeong Gyeong-shim (58), Dongyang University, who was tried on charges of illegal entrance exams, and was imprisoned. The court judged that some of Professor Chung’s charges admitted on this day were conspiracy with former Justice Minister Cho Kook, who is Professor Jung’s spouse.

There are two parts to which Professor Jeong’s court admitted to collusion with former Minister Cho during the alleged irregularities in the entrance exam. This is an internship certificate received from the Seoul National University Public Service and Human Rights Law Center and an internship and training certificate received at a hotel in Busan. These data were recorded in the life records of her daughter Jo Min, and were used as specifications when Jo applied for Seoul National University Medical School in 2013. In this regard, the judiciary convicted Professor Jeong of interfering with business and executing false official documents.

Former Minister Cho, her husband, is also being tried in the 21st Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court on charges of irregularities in the entrance examination for children. However, in the trial of former Minister Cho, the couple are indicted together in connection with corruption in the entrance examination of their son, and only former Minister Cho is indicted regarding corruption in the entrance examination of their daughter. This is because Professor Jeong was already controversing on charges of illegal entrance exams related to his daughter at his trial. An incumbent prosecutor said, “The part that was recognized in Professor Jeong’s trial is highly likely to be recognized in the trial of former Minister Cho.”

In connection with the suspicion of a false internship by Cho Min, the daughter of former Justice Minister Cho Kook, at Seoul National University’s Public Interest Human Rights Law Center, Professor Chung Kyung-shim of Dongyang University released a video containing the details of Cho’s activities last year. Professor Jeong’s side claimed that the girl in the red circle was Jomin who attended the seminar at the time. The prosecution is in a position that this is not true. [연합뉴스]

The judiciary decided that former Minister Cho, who was a professor at Seoul National University Law School, directly participated in the high school daughter’s’Spec Poomat’. In May 2009, when he was in high school, Mr. Jo and his high school alumnus Mr. Jang-mo received a confirmation that he had been working as an intern at the Seoul National University Public Interest Law Center. Jang is the child of Professor Jang-mo, who uploaded Cho as the first author of the thesis at Dankook University. The judge ruled that “the motherland promised to give her daughter friend a certificate of internship at the Center for Public Interest Human Rights Law, and Kyung-Shim Chung conspired with her country to receive a false internship certificate.”

The confirmation of the internship was found on the computer of former Minister Cho’s office at Seoul National University Law School. In summary, the judiciary said that Cho had written an internship confirmation without permission from the center director with the help of the staff who kept the center director’s seal. However, Professor Jeong decided that it was difficult to admit that he had conspired for counterfeiting in advance, so he judged that he was a joint offender for the event of false official documents.

The court judged that the confirmation that his daughter Jo had completed his internship and training as a high school student at a hotel in Busan was also false.

Earlier, the prosecution prosecuted Professor Jeong, saying, “As my daughter, who was about to go to college, showed interest in the department of hotel management, she made her hotel internship false.” The confirmation of the hotel intern says that Jo Min learned hotel management practices from 2007 to 2009. The purpose of this is that the school student Jo did an internship once or twice a week. The confirmation of this internship was recorded in Jo’s high school life record. It was also submitted for admission to Seoul National University Graduate School of Medicine.

Hotel officials who appeared in court during the trial gave testimony to the effect that “I have never seen or heard a high school student intern.” Then, Professor Jeong asserted that “I did an intern at a hotel in Seoul that has partnered with a hotel in Busan, and this was recognized and I got a certificate from a Busan hotel.”

However, the court did not accept all of these claims. The court decided that the hotel intern confirmation was created by former Minister Cho. The judge said, “(The confirmation letter and certificate of completion) were written by the motherland arbitrarily and then sealed in the name of the hotel’s representative director.” “The Jung Kyung-sim and the motherland conspired to falsify the training certificate, etc., and the mother country prepared it. It was judged that Jung Kyung-shim was involved.”

Professor Kyung-Shim Chung, who has been handed over to trial on charges such as corruption in the entrance examination of his children and allegations of private equity investment, is attending the first trial trial held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 23rd. [연합뉴스]

In addition to the irregularities in the entrance exam, there are other areas where Cho’s conspiracy was recognized. Former Minister Cho and Prof. Jeong told asset manager Kim Gyeong-rok to hide the storage media of the home PC and the PC of the Tong Yang University laboratory. The judge said, “It is acknowledged that the motherland and the defendant decided to conceal their home PC storage media in preparation for future investigations and ordered Kim to conceal them.” However, the court sentenced Professor Chung to innocence on this charge. Professor Jeong moved to the professor’s office of Tong Yang University with Kim, brought a PC, and so on, so that he could not be punished for being a co-pilot, not a teacher.

Former Minister Cho is also facing trial on the same matter in his own trial. Therefore, there is also a prospect that this may be advantageous to Cho, if the former Minister’s Judgment also agrees with him. On the other hand, there is a view that Cho is unlikely to be recognized as a’joint criminal’. Professor Jeong moved with Kim when he brought the computer out of Tong Yang University, but Cho did not. One of the prosecutors said, “You can argue enough with a teacher who concealed evidence.”

Reporter Lee Sujeong [email protected]