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나경원씨 아들의 예일 입시비리 의혹 진상규명을 촉구하는 청원 (범국민 서명 운동)

지금 대한민국에서는 제 1야당의 국회교섭단체 대표위원인 나경원씨의 아들 김00 군의 예일대학 입학 과정에서 발생한 의혹의 진상을 규명해달라는 국민 여론이 들끓고 있습니다. 김00군은 2016년 예일대 화학과에 입학하였는데, 입학을 위해 준비했던 여러 대회 수상 및 학술대회 포스터(논문) 게재 과정에서 각종 의혹과 특혜 문제가 제기되었기 때문입니다.

김00 군은 2015년 미국 뉴햄프셔과학경진대회(New Hampshire Science & Engineering Expo)에 출전하여 전체 2등, Engineering 분야 1등상을 수상했습니다. “Research on The Feasibility of Cardiac Output Estimation using Photoplethysmogram and Ballistocardiogram.” (https://nhsee.org/2015-winners/)

위의 경진대회에서 김00 군은 두 가지 규정을 위반하였다는 의혹이 제기되었습니다.

첫째, 인체연구에 필수적인 IRB를 사전 승인을 받지 않았음에도 경진대회 신청서에는 IRB 승인을 받았다고 허위 사실을 기재했다는 것과,

둘째, 대회에 출품한 연구 결과가 김00 학생의 독자적인 아이디어와 주도적으로 진행한 실험의 결과물이 아니라는 것입니다.

아이디어는 서울대학 윤형진 교수와 전문가들이 제공했으며, 실험 관련 프로세스를 셋팅 해놓은 환경에서 교수와 전문가인 리서치 스탭들이 도와준 프로젝트라는 것입니다. 위의 내용은 단순한 의혹이 아니라, 지도교수였던 서울대 윤형진 교수가 언론과의 직접 또는 서면 인터뷰에서 인정한 것으로, AFP를 비롯한 국제 통신사와 대한민국 국내 언론에 의해 널리 보도된 공지의 사실입니다.

https://news.yahoo.com/korea-education-row-embroils-opposition-leader-son-yale-044037847.html
https://n.news.naver.com/article/056/0010743270?fbclid=IwAR2VbcM2KT3Y_9Rd2jl1dWL4IUDD3qkwTVCdfFrSIb6JeUp1MbJdMTJ6PW4
http://news.heraldcorp.com/view.php?ud=20190911000698

뉴햄프셔과학경진대회 입상 몇 개월 뒤 김00 군은 똑같은 제목의 소논문을 제 1저자로서, 그리고 다른 논문을 제 4저자로 세계적인 학술대회 IEEE EMBC에 제출했습니다.
고등학생 신분으로 그 유명한 국제 학술대회에 제 1저자로서 포스터(논문)을 어떻게 제출할 능력이 될 것인가도 의심스러운 마당에, 그 논문 두개에 김00군의 신분은 고등학생이 아닌 서울대 소속으로 기록되어 있습니다.
이 실험을 지도했던 서울대 윤형진 교수는 소속이 서울대로 기재된건 단순한 실수였다고 해명했지만, 한번도 아니고 두번씩이나 (제 1저자 및 4저자) 포스터(논문)에 실수로 소속을 잘못 기재할 수 있는지 도무지 납득이 되지 않습니다.

이같이 학술대회 제출 문서에 서울대학교 소속 학생이 아닌 고등학생을 서울대학교 대학원 소속인 것처럼 허위로 기재한 것은 까다로운 논문 심사과정을 피하기 위한 편법이거나, 고등학생이 대학원생에게만 출품 자격이 부여되는 수준 높은 대회에 출품하려는 부정한 의도에서 비롯되었을 가능성이 높습니다.

처음 대회에 심사과정을 위해 제출되었던 소논문에는 서울대 소속이고,00 군과 일련의 보호자 그룹에 의해 학술대회 프로그램 책자의 소속이 다시 고등학생으로 바뀐 것은 IEEE EMBC 수상경력을 예일대학 입시에 제출하여 부정한 혜택을 받기 위한 목적이었을 것이라는 의혹이 강하게 제기되고 있습니다.

이 문제가 사회적 문제로 불거진 이유는 단지 김00 개인에 대한 관심에서 비롯된 것이 아니라, 대회 출품 및 예일대학 입학 당시의 어머니 나경원씨의 사회적 지위 때문입니다. 2014-2015년 나경원씨는, 박근혜 정권 집권여당의 실세 의원으로서 다양한 정재계 커넥션을 가지고 있었습니다. 그녀가 단순히 친구인 윤형진 교수에게 실험실만 빌려달라고 부탁했었다고 하지만 신빙성이 없는 주장입니다. 국립대학인 서울대학교의 학생이 아닌 외국의 고등학교 학생으로서 대한민국의 국가 시설물을 무상으로 사용했다는 것은, 단순한 특혜를 넘어 위법일 가능성이 큰 사안으로서, 현재 당국에 고발되어 수사가 진행 중인 사건입니다.

이에 더해 프로젝트 자체가 정경유착으로 악명 높은 기업 삼성의 후원이라는 점 또한 그 이면에 정경유착과 권력형 비리 연루에 대한 의심을 사고 있습니다. 윤형진 교수는 친구인 나경원씨의 부탁을 들어 준 것이라고 변명하지만, 번거로운 프로젝트의 아이디어를 내고 실험실 제공 및 실험과정 전반을 도와주는 일에 대가가 없다는 것은 납득하기 어렵다는 것이 일반 시민의 상식이기 때문입니다.

현재 김00군의 어머니 나경원씨는 예일대 입학 관련 문제를 제기하는 국민과 언론에 대해 진실을 명확하게 밝히기 보다는 오히려 고소/고발 하겠다는 협박성 발언으로 파문이 확산되지 않도록 하는 일에만 집중하고 있는 실정입니다.
이에 김00 군의 예일대학 입학과정에서 벌어진 각종 의혹에 대한 진상 규명 및 적절한 조치를 원하는 대한민국 국민의 염원을 모아 최대한 신속하고 공정한 조사를 통하여 진실을 규명하고, 조사 결과 규정을 위반한 사실이 확인될 경우에는 위반행위에 상응하는 조치를 취해 주실 것을 요청하며 진정서를 제출합니다.


** 대표 이메일 [email protected]
** 주관 단체: 국제법률전문가협회, 민생경제 연구소, 시민연대함깨
** 서명기한:2019/09/24- -10/15


A Nationwide Petition for Investigation into Alleged Yale Admissions Fraud
of Kim Hyun-jo, the Son of Na Kyung-won


Our petition is regarding Kim Hyun-jo, the son of Na Kyung-won, a member of the National Assembly of Korea and the floor leader of the first opposition party called Liberty Korea Party. Kim is alleged to have been involved in admissions fraud when applying to Yale University in 2016 by submitting falsified documents to have an unfair advantage in the college application process. It is also believed that Na is behind the scam, abusing her political power to make all these illegal activities possible. Now a nationwide public demand for a fact-check and investigation into the scandal has reached a boiling point. This is the petition made by the people concerned about fairness of college admissions, the abuse of political power, and favoritism among those in power.

We believe that Kim was admitted to the Department of Chemistry at Yale College with the documents he is alleged to have submitted as supplementary materials, such as a couple of science awards, research papers, and posts, which he had meticulously prepared for college application. But these academic achievements he has claimed to be his own raise various questions as to their validity in the process of composition, submission, and participation, not to speak of solicitation his mother used behind the scene to make these things possible.

Kim won the first prize in the field of engineering and the second place in the overall ranking in a science competition for high school student showcases hosted by New Hampshire Science and Engineering Expo (NHSEE) in 2015 when he was a student at St. Paul’s School. The title of his research is “Research on the Feasibility of Cardiac Output Estimation Using Photoplethysmogram and Ballistocardiogram” (https://nhsee.org/2015-winners/).

First, in this contest, Kim falsely claimed that he had obtained the approval of Institutional Review Board (IRB) before starting his experiment. According to federal laws, an IRB “must evaluate the potential physical and/or psychological risk of research involving humans. All proposed human research must be reviewed and approved by an IRB before experimentation begins. This includes review of any surveys or questionnaires to be used in a project.” When submitting the material, Kim omitted the IRB approval intentionally and pretended to have obtained it before the start of the research.

Second, the result of the research submitted to NHSEE was neither based on his own original idea nor was it done on his own as the sole author as he claimed. The idea was provided by Professor Yoon Hyung-jin of Seoul National University (SNU) and his graduate students, and the experiment was performed in the environment where the entire process was already set by Yoon and his research staff. This is not a mere suspicion, but a hard fact obtained from Yoon’s interview with the press and from his written interview. Moreover, Yoon confirmed that the above-mentioned IRB had been omitted at the time of research in 2015. All these illegal activities were widely publicized through international news media like AFP and other national press. Please refer to a few of the following reports:

https://news.yahoo.com/korea-education-row-embroils-opposition-leader-son-yale-044037847.html

https://n.news.naver.com/article/056/0010743270?fbclid=IwAR2VbcM2KT3Y_9Rd2jl1dWL4IUDD3qkwTVCdfFrSIb6JeUp1MbJdMTJ6PW4

http://news.heraldcorp.com/view.php?ud=20190911000698


Then a few months after he received the two awards in NHSEE, Kim submitted the same material to IEEE EMBC, the world-renowned international conference, with his name as the first author. In this poster presentation, the same content was demonstrated in the form of a short thesis with exactly the same title which had won him the two prizes in NHSEE. He also submitted another poster presentation along with a research paper to IEEE EMBC with his name as the fourth author. Please refer to the following two short theses:

http://150.162.46.34:8080/embc-2015/papers/19503541.pdf

http://150.162.46.34:8080/embc-2015/papers/21303443.pdf


For a high school student, how could it be possible to submit the research posts (theses) to such a famous international conference as the first author? Besides, Kim’s identity was falsified to be a graduate student belonging to Seoul National University. Yoon, who had supervised him as the Principal Investigator (PI) for both research studies and publications, acknowledged that it was a simple mistake to make him a SNU graduate student. But how could it be a mistake if it happened not once, but twice to use Kim’s wrong identity and name Kim the first and forth author in the posts (theses), respectively.

We believe that all these activities were done to avoid the difficult evaluation process required in the course of submission and to make a high school student to participate in the highly competitive contest which is open only to graduate students.

When Kim submitted his short theses to IEEE EMBC for evaluation, he was a SNU graduate student as mentioned above. Then his status was changed into a high school student and printed so in the proceedings with the help of people behind him. This is a clear case of illegal change of status for the purpose of getting benefits from it. It is needless to say that Kim purposefully made this change only to use these materials definitely for another purpose, that is, to take illegal advantage in college application. He is alleged to have submitted these academic achievements to Yale as supplementary materials.

The reason for the public attention to this matter is not only Kim’s college admissions fraud, but also Na’s abuse of her social position and political power when her son participated in the research projects, submitted them to the famous contests, and then finally got admission to Yale. In 2014-2015, Na had a variety of connections as an influential congresswoman belonging then to the Park Keun-hye’s government. It is hard to believe Na’s claim that she simply asked Yoon, one of her close friends and alumni, to provide her son with the lab to perform the experiment on his own. It is not only a favoritism but also a serious crime for a national university to give a high school student from a foreign country access to its facilities free of charge without any legal procedures for an access permit. Now this is considered a corruption crime in which Na abused her power to solicit her friend and college alumnus for unfair benefits from the top university in Korea. We also believe that Na gave a birth to his son, Kim, in the U.S. for him to obtain dual nationalities for the illegal purpose of avoiding his mandatory military service in Korea.

Besides, it is also considered a crime of collusive ties between politics and business, as well as an influence-peddling scandal because Yoon’s project was supported by Samsung, notorious for its ties with politics. Even though Yoon makes excuses that he just accepted his friend’s request without something in turn, it is hardly believable that he opened his lab to her son, gave him the project idea, and helped him in the entire process of the research without any compensation.

Faced with the public demand for truth with regard to her son’s Yale admissions fraud, Na keeps threatening to sue those publicizing her illegal activities in order to cover up the scandal and her role behind the scene. In this respect, we demand that proper actions be taken to find the truth in the course of Kim’s application to Yale and a swift, fair, and thorough investigation be performed into Na’s possible abuse of power behind all these activities. Now with the wishes of all those concerned, we submit this petition with our signatures in the hope that commensurate actions with the crimes committed, if found, be taken to stop the admissions scam and the abuse of political power in the process of college application.


September 24, 2019

Submitted in collaboration with Association of International Lawyers, Research Institute for People’s Livelihood and Economy, and Citizen Coalition
([email protected])


CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:
The contents of this document and any attachments are intended solely for the voluntary participants of the petition and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended participant of the petition, or if this content of the document has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the collaborative legal team described. If you are not the intended participant, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this content of the petition or its attachments is strictly prohibited.

* 서명기한: 2019/09/24- -10/15

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