Defense Ministry Instructs to Probe Academic Dishonesty Allegations

In response to the dismissal of Army officers who were commissioned with forged foreign university degrees, the Ministry of National Defense instructed the Army to investigate into additional academic forgery cases yesterday.

The ministry ordered the Army, Navy and Air Forces to check the academic backgrounds of officers who received their bachelor’s degrees abroad in order to confirm if there are more officers commissioned with forged diplomas, besides the recently disgraced 23 officers (two retired officers, 13 active officers, eight cadets).

The Defense Ministry also instructed related department to draw up measures to verify overseas college degrees and check all academic backgrounds of civil servants working for the ministry or military units.

The Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office has arrested brokers who arranged diploma forgery for the two retired officers.

In the advent of the Shin Jeong-ah scandal that involved influence peddling and created a big stir in the art and religious communities over academic forgery, the National Election Commission instructed central government agencies in August to verify academic the academic backgrounds and licenses of all their employees.

The Military Manpower Administration said that the 21 officers, including cadets and active officers, will have to serve out their mandatory military duty again as a rank-and-file soldiers or noncommissioned officers in accordance with the court’s ruling.

ysh1005@donga.com