South Korea: Special counsel raids National Education Commission over alleged bribery

Seoul, Sep 4 A special counsel team said Friday it raided the presidential National Educational Commission (NEC) over bribery allegations involving its incumbent chief and South Korea's former first lady Kim Keon Hee.

Prosecutors and investigators from special counsel Min Joong-ki's team searched the commission in the morning to secure possible evidence on suspicions that NEC Chairperson Lee Bae-yong was appointed to the ministerial post after giving a gold gift to Kim, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The probe into Lee came after the special counsel team discovered a golden turtle weighing 10 don (37.5 grams) and a letter apparently written by Lee to former President Yoon Suk Yeol and Kim, during a separate raid targeting Kim's mother.

The team suspects the turtle was given as a gift to Kim in exchange for Lee's appointment as the inaugural chief of the commission in September 2022. Lee offered to resign on Monday, days after the special counsel raided her residence.

The special counsel team said it also launched a raid on the Presidential Security Service in the morning to receive "necessary materials for a related investigation."

During a press briefing later in the day, it elaborated that the search was related to allegations that Kim and then PSS deputy chief Kim Seong-hoon organised a private party aboard a Navy vessel during Yoon and Kim's summer vacation in 2023.

Earlier on Thursday, education officials said that South Korea's former first lady Kim Keon Hee has been stripped of her teaching license after a private university cancelled her master's degree earlier this year.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) has recently revoked Kim's teaching certificate after completing the relevant procedures, such as a hearing, they said.

Kim, who is now detained at the Seoul Southern Detention Centre, did not attend the hearing or submit any statement of opinion, they added.

The SMOE has informed Kim, through the detention centre, to review the hearing results and transcripts. The revocation will be finalised if she does not appeal the results.

In June, Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul cancelled Kim's master's degree earned from its Graduate School of Education due to thesis plagiarism. She had obtained her teaching certificate based on her master's degree in education.

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