Cho Kyo-jin, the vice prime minister and nominee for Minister of Education, stated on the 29th regarding criticisms that his past social media (SNS) posts were 'crude,' "There are parts where I should apologize for some expressions being excessive."
The nominee conveyed this stance in a response submitted to the National Assembly for the personnel hearing.
Previously, he posted a photo of himself at a rally demanding the resignation of former President Park Geun-hye on his SNS, along with the message "Goodbye, XX year." He also referred to the death of former President Park Chung-hee on October 26 as 'Tangtang Day.' This led to criticism of his excessive expressions.
The nominee also commented on the controversy regarding his political bias, saying, "If I am appointed as Minister of Education, I will ensure that personnel decisions are conducted fairly and transparently." He is a progressive former superintendent who was dismissed three times due to his activities with the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations.
Additionally, regarding sharing conspiracy theories about the Cheonan sinking on SNS, the nominee stated, "I do not agree with the entirety of the content of the shared post," adding, "I shared it in the spirit of reading and reflecting together."
When asked about opinions on entrance exam corruption, the nominee said, "Acts of fraud and corruption that undermine fair competition in entrance exams must be eradicated and dealt with strictly," and added, "I will respond severely to entrance exam corruption in line with the public's expectations for securing fairness in college admissions." In the past, he had posted on SNS regarding the investigation into the entrance exam corruption of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk's children, referring to it as "the prosecutors' dance with knives."
In addition, regarding allegations of plagiarism in the nominee's master's thesis, Mokwon University, the institution in question, only stated, "There have been no reports of research misconduct." According to the response in the personnel hearing request, Mokwon University revealed, "There have been no reports of research misconduct received by the Mokwon University Research Ethics Integrity Committee related to the nominee's thesis, and therefore we find it difficult to respond to this matter." The nominee submitted a thesis titled "Analysis of Policy Promises in the Manifesto Movement" for his master's degree in public administration at Mokwon University in December 2006. However, the thesis faced allegations of plagiarism for citing multiple newspaper articles without proper attribution.