Theborn Korea, operated by Paik Jong-won, has been found to have submitted service reports to Jangseong County in South Jeolla Province and Mungyeong City in North Gyeongsang Province that plagiarized papers and other documents.
As some local governments have belatedly demanded the submission of reports for budget processing, it seems that local governments will also find it difficult to avoid responsibility for the report's deficiencies.
According to a comprehensive report from ChosunBiz on the 30th, Jangjin County and Jangseong County in South Jeolla Province, as well as Mungyeong City in North Gyeongsang Province, visited cities including Tokyo, Hachioji, Saitama, and Sodagawara from January 9 to 12 last year for a four-day, three-night schedule with Theborn Korea's Food Service Industry Development Institute.
The Food Service Industry Development Institute of Theborn Korea is a restaurant startup education institution created by Theborn Korea, with Paik Jong-won serving as the head.
Theborn Korea received a total of 330 million won in research service funds, receiving 11 million won each from these local governments for the purpose of researching the sixth industry.
The sixth industry is a model that creates added value by linking resources found in rural areas with agriculture, food, specialty product manufacturing and processing (secondary industry), distribution and sales, experience, and tourism.
The reports submitted by Theborn Korea after the site visits to Jangjin County, Jangseong County, and Mungyeong City included contents from the local investigations such as 'advanced cases in Japan,' and the main text consisted of 25 pages.
However, the contents regarding the locations investigated, including 'antenna shops' that emerged as examples of Japanese strategic stores, 'Michinoeki,' a type of officially designated rest area promoted by the Japanese government in the 1990s, and a theme park in Saiboku, were filled with text cut and pasted from papers and past broadcasts or local news articles from the 2010s.
It also listed contents and sentences from the 'Operation of Advanced Case Field Trips for Activating the Sixth Industry' published by the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) in 2012 and 'Going to the Sixth Industrialization of Agricultural and Fisheries in Japan' from the Chungnam Agricultural and Fisheries Sixth Industrialization Center in 2013 without any modifications.
The report submitted to Jangseong County included a separate section titled 'Establishment of Practical Strategies for Food Tech and Green Bio Technology,' which also directly copied parts from essays contributed by university professors, papers from the 2010s, and 'Trends in Innovation and Future Prospects of the Food Tech Industry' published by the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) in 2023, without citing any sources.
It seems that local governments will not be able to avoid responsibility for the 'plagiarized report.' Contrary to the intention of activating the sixth industry in line with local characteristics, there were no measures applicable to the region detailed in each report, yet they did not request revisions from Theborn Korea.
A local government official said, 'I understand that some local governments requested Theborn Korea for reports belatedly as they became necessary during the budget processing. Since this is the first time, and everything was hastily pushed forward overall, it seems there were some shortcomings.'
A representative from Theborn Korea stated that it was a 'clear mistake.' He added, 'The employee who wrote the report has left the company, and we are aware that all citations should include sources, which were all omitted. We have provided training on writing methods to prevent making the same mistakes again when creating future service reports, and we've established procedures for preventing recurrence during a recent organizational restructuring.'
Lee Eun-hee, a professor in the Department of Consumer Studies at Inha University, said, 'While Theborn Korea is knowledgeable in practice, it is questionable whether they have the capability to carry out research services.'
She further noted, 'Rather than local governments seeking out capable firms that are familiar with the region, it seems they expected good results by entrusting everything to Theborn Korea, leading to the report plagiarism controversy. Theborn Korea should focus on areas where they excel to enhance their company's competitiveness and contribute more to society.'