On Oct. 19, it was reported that Jeong Gyeong-sim, former Dongyang University professor and the wife of Cho Kuk, emergency countermeasures committee chairperson of the Rebuilding Korea Party, filed a criminal complaint against Dongyang University President Choi Sung-hae and others who claimed her daughter Cho Min's award certificate was forged.
According to the legal community, Jeong filed a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Sept. 30 against eight school officials, including President Choi and a former vice president surnamed Kim, on charges including destruction of evidence and perjury to harm.
Jeong's side reportedly argued in the complaint that evidence has emerged to rebut the ruling that "on the issuance date of Cho Min's certificate, there were no staff members at the issuing agency, the Language Education Institute, making issuance itself impossible." They claim that new internal Dongyang University documents under the name of Language Education Institute staff, dated August and September 2012—periods said to have had no staff working at the institute—have been newly discovered.
In addition, Jeong's side is said to have argued that President Choi's statement that "I never approved Cho Min's certificate and there are no materials or documents" was also perjury intended to defame Jeong and her husband. They also claimed there are indications that evidence, including documents related to Cho Min's award records, was destroyed during the prosecution's investigation.
The "Cho Kuk scandal" erupted in 2019 over college admission allegations, including a forged certificate for his daughter Cho Min. Cho, who was then the justice minister, resigned, and a large-scale prosecution probe followed. Jeong received a finalized four-year prison sentence in 2022, and Cho received a finalized two-year sentence in 2024, but both were released in August under the Liberation Day special pardon by the Lee Jae-myung administration.