Ex-justice minister’s daughter indicted in college admissions scandal

The daughter of Cho Kuk, who served as justice minister for former President Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea, was indicted on Thursday in the college admissions scandal that jailed her mother, Chung Kyung-shim.

According to the prosecution, the former minister’s daughter Cho Min colluded with her mother in fabricating her own credentials as she applied for a medical school in Busan.

Following the news of her indictment, Cho’s daughter said in a social statement on this day that she would “attend the trial faithfully.”

In January last year, the top court confirmed a four-year term for Chung for misleading schools by falsely claiming credentials on her daughter’s applications to secure admission.

The Busan medical school in April 2022 revoked her admission after discovering that fraudulent qualifications had been submitted. Cho sued the school for nullifying her admission, but the court sided with the school in April. She decided not to appeal.

In a similar scandal, Chung and the former minister’s son Cho Won was accused of using false academic and other credentials to get into a graduate program at Yonsei University in Seoul. After prosecutors launched an investigation, he said he would give up his master’s degree from the university.

Cho, who is currently facing trial in the college admissions scandal involving his wife and children, has denied all wrongdoing to date. The former minister’s lawyer has insisted that he was not complicit in his wife’s forging of credentials to get their children accepted into schools.