On October 7, an allegation was raised that Kim Keon-hee, the wife of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, a presidential candidate of the People Power Party, submitted a false record of her teaching experience in order to teach at a university in 2004. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also confirmed, “There is no record of the work experience in question.”

This day, ten lawmakers on the parliamentary Education Committee including Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers An Min-suk and Do Jong-hwan and Open Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Min-jung, held a press conference at the National Assembly and said they confirmed that Kim’s teaching experiences at elementary, middle and high schools in Seoul were false and announced, “We suspect that Kim’s irregularities continued extensively for a long period of time.” They suspect that Kim landed a job as a part-time lecturer at Seoil University based on the fabricated resume.

In 2004, Kim Keon-hee wrote on her application for the teaching position at Seoil University that she had worked at Daedo Elementary School from 1997 to1998, at Gwangnam Middle School in 1998, and Youngnak High School in 2001. All the schools are located in Seoul. But according to the response that the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education submitted to the National Assembly following a request to confirm Kim Myeong-sin’s (Kim Keon-hee) work experience at schools within the capital district, Kim did not work in the schools mentioned.

According to the document from the Office of Education, the response for the parliamentary inspection was “written based on the list of full-time regular teachers, part-time teachers and teaching employees that the schools in question submitted.” It also states, “However, there was a record showing that she had taught as a lecturer at Youngnak Girls’ Commercial High School (currently the Youngnak Medical-Science High School, and not Youngnak High School) in 2001.” Kim did not mention her work experience at Youngnak Girls’ Commercial High School in her curriculum vitae when she applied to Seoil University.

Earlier, when Kim’s career ignited controversy, one media outlet reported last August, that Kim had trained as a student teacher at Gwangnam Middle School in 1998. But since the field training of student teachers is part of a class provided by institutes training teachers, the current law does not recognize student teachers as teachers. In other words, Kim cannot include her experience as a trainee teacher in her professional experiences in schools or in her teaching experiences.

Members of the Education Committee argued, “Kim fabricated her teaching experience and exaggerated her experiencesmaking it look like she took part in a BK21 project when she didn’t, while she was studying at Kookmin University.” They also said, “She may have fabricated her resume in the process of seeking employment at other universities.”

They asked Kookmin University “to stop protecting Kim, who stained the school’s honor and compromised the integrity of academia and to disclose her resume from when the school hired her.” They further said, “If Kookmin University cannot do so, the education ministry must take stern measures and uncover the truth.”