Overview

• Lee Jin-sook formally apologized at her July 16 confirmation hearing for sending her middle school–aged daughter to study in the U.S. without a supervising parent.
• South Korea’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires students to remain in school through middle school unless a parent accompanies them abroad, with violations punishable by fines up to 1 million won.
• She addressed allegations of academic misconduct involving possible plagiarism of a student thesis and duplicate publication of her own work, defending her lead-author status based on her role in project design.
• Opposition lawmakers challenged the completeness of Lee’s document submissions and pressed for additional witness testimony to probe her research integrity.
• The National Assembly and academic bodies are now reviewing the legal and ethical issues to determine her confirmation and any potential penalties.