South Korea's Ex-first lady stripped of teaching license

Seoul, Sep 4 (IANS) 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, education officials said on Thursday.

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.

Meanwhile, a special counsel's indictment on Wednesday showed Kim Keon Hee actively participated in a stock manipulation scheme from 2009 to 2012, contrary to claims that she simply provided money.

According to the indictment filed last Friday and seen by Yonhap News Agency, the wife of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol was first introduced to the chief of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, in 2004, and she was aware that he was manipulating the company's stock prices with the help of Lee Jong-ho, former head of Black Pearl Invest.

Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team wrote in the indictment that Kim aided the effort by offering her own stock accounts containing 1.6 billion won (US$1.15 million) and 2 billion won each.

On July 5, the Church official met Jeon at a hotel in Seoul and asked that he deliver the bag to Kim along with a request for government support for various large-scale projects pushed by the Church, including the hosting of a United Nations office in South Korea.

Kim received the bag and the request shortly afterwards, and on July 15, called the Church official to thank him for the bag and to assure him of the government's efforts to help the Church, the special counsel team said.

The former first lady has been under arrest since August 12.

Her indictment last week made her and her husband the first former presidential couple to stand trial under arrest simultaneously, as Yoon is also jailed and being tried on insurrection charges over his failed attempt to impose martial law in December.

--IANS

int/akl/sd