It was revealed that Kim In-cheol, a candidate for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education (pictured), and his daughter and spouse, as well as his son, received a scholarship from the Fulbright Scholarship Foundation in the United States.
According to Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Min-jung and Kang Deuk-gu of the National Assembly Education Committee on the 26th, Kim’s two children were selected as scholarship students from 2012 to 2015, when Kim served as president of the Fulbright Korea Alumni Association. His daughter received a master’s degree from Cornell University from 2014 to 2016, and his son from Columbia University from 2016 to 2018. Since the Fulbright Scholarship is applied one year before payment, the timing of the son’s selection coincides with the time when Kim was the alumni president. Her spouse, Ms. Lee, served as an exchange professor at Temple University in the United States from 2004 to 2005 with the support of Fulbright.
Rep. Kang Min-jung said, “The whole family enjoyed the scholarship program that only a few were selected in a year in Korea. It is questionable whether the national scholarship benefits have been privatized by a few.”
There was also a claim that candidate Kim gave false explanations about his role as an outside director of Lotte Advanced Materials during his tenure as president of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Previously, candidate Kim explained that he had even received approval from the corporate board of directors for criticism that he ‘self-approved’ his appointment as an outside director. However, according to Democratic Party Representative Park Chan, candidate Kim requested permission from the board of directors to hold a concurrent position only the day after his inauguration as an outside director (March 22, 2018), and the board’s approval was granted on March 26. Candidate Kim’s side said through the Ministry of Education, “The allegations raised, including the Fulbright scholarship, will be clarified at the hearing.”
Reporter Jo Yura jyr0101@donga.com
By Choi Ye-na, staff reporter yena@donga.com
