내로남불=윤로남불 Yoon Seok-yeol's Hypocrisy

(Source- 알리미 황희두 youtube 7.10 ) So this political cartoon shows Yoon Seok-yeol, appearing to resemble Hitler as he sometimes does in these cartoons, saying the university decides whether his wife's Ph.D. was plagiarized. So he and his wife Kim Geon-hee appear in the frame suitable for the mainstream press reporting. Outside the scope of that reporting, Yoon wields his prosecutorial club (issuing warrants against multiple colleges) to destroy the former Justice Minister Cho Guk, and his daughter in the picture, because she is listed as an author of a professional paper.


내로남불 ne ro nam bul, a reference to hypocrisy and double standards is a favored saying in contemporary South Korea. Of course, here it is applied to Yoon Seok-yeol the leading conservative candidate for president in South Korea who just declared his candidacy formally on June 29. Literally, the phrase means "when I do it it's love, when someone else does it its adultery ( 내가하면 로맨스 남이하면 불륜 ). In this political cartoon, the phrase has been adapted to fit Yoon personally due to his special brand of duplicity. So the saying at the bottom of the cartoon says "Yoon ro nam bul," (윤로남불).

The latest embarrassing allegation about Yoon's wife, Kim Geon-hee, is that the Ph.D. thesis that was approved by her university is plagiarized in large part. It's alleged that substantial portions of the thesis are taken directly from another similar thesis article written by a different author without attribution. This came up because sensational allegations against Kim that have gone viral on social media. One of these as yet unproven allegations was that Kim was a "hostess" going by the moniker "Julie," at the former Renaissance Ramada in Seoul, where she formed relationships with prosecutor Yang Dae-taek, and later Yoon Seok-yeol, whom she married in 2012. The distilled version of these allegations is that "Julie" used her relationship with these prosecutors to unethically influence the outcomes of criminal and civil investigations affecting her mother Choi, and herself. Allegedly, family relatives of Choi have confirmed to investigative reporters that Yoon and Kim met by way of an introduction through the owner of the Renaissance.*


Kim made the mistake of publicly asserting that she was too busy as a post grad Ph.D. candidate to be working as a hostess as alleged. Some reporter took the initiative, perhaps by unlawful means, to obtain copies of relevant records related to the Ph.D. thesis. His investigation determined, allegedly, that Kim's thesis is plagiarized at least in substantial part. Yoon has threatened to investigate the reporter for posing as a law enforcement official to obtain access to the records. One of the pundits critical of Yoon has observed that Yoon's threatened criminal countermeasure against the reporter involves process rather than substance.

The university (국민대) says they will conduct a review to determine if the thesis merited the doctoral award and if they are any ethical breaches to be remedied. The irony of all this is that former Justice Minister Cho Guk, and his wife, Chung Kyung-shim, and their daughter and other persons have been relentlessly pursued by prosecutors (at Yoon's behest, in his former position as Prosecutor General) for over a year and half in court upon charges which began with an allegedly forged intern certificate, and whether or not, Cho's daughter should have been listed as a co- author on a scientific research paper. Cho's daughter apparently served as the English editor, translating the scientific nomenclature and terminology from the study, in Korean and English suitable for publication in a professional journal. Professor Chung Kyung-shim, Cho Guk's wife was sentenced to four years in prison, for allegedly creating the false internship certificate. Professor Chung Kyung-shim is currently confined in prison. The judgement and sentence are under appeal at the review trial level.

The conservative press has covered Cho Guk, his wife and daughter, relentlessly, publishing every baseless rumor and libelous allegation they can conceive. Failures of proof in court, unlawful procedures, and other developments embarrassing the prosecution, showing how the case was improbably crafted by the prosecution are never discussed except in independent media. Consequently, Cho Guk, a former law professor, as well as being a former aide to the Blue House for civil affairs, has literally brought dozens of libel suits against his family's tormentors in the media, which has proven somewhat effective in multiple cases. One problem is the relatively small judgements in defamation cases in South Korea. In the latest case to make the news, where Cho and his daughter are pictured as theives in a prostitution ring, Cho has threatened to sue the major media cartel Chosun Ilbo in the US where defamation judgements are much larger. ( Chosun Ilbo has an branch in LA). The conservative newspaper immediately printed a retraction and apology.


*열린공감TV is the main media source of these reports alleging corruption by Yoon's mother in law and wife. It is an independent investigative journalism channel on youtube. A live broadcast yesterday on this subject by 열린공감TV received over 360 thousand views. Their reports are sometimes supported by audio recordings of anonymous witnesses who claim to know or have had a familial relationship with Choi, Yoon's mother in law, and wife. Recordings of Choi herself, or admissions by Choi in former trials, and official documents, are also used to support the stories. The reports then go viral on social media. Evidence is largely circumstantial and 열린공감TV itself typically admits that further investigation is required to support the allegations. Nevertheless, the uproar is bleeding into the South Korean mainstream media, typically in a diluted or rebuttal form. 열린공감TV leads come from extensive recorded interviews with Jang Dae-taek, a former business partner of Choi, convicted years ago, of extortion in a business partnership with Choi. In a legal turn about, Jang was sentenced to two years in prison after he charged that Choi defrauded him of more than 2 million dollars. After this alleged injustice, Jang's legal pursuit of Choi in the courts has been ongoing for seventeen years. Jang accuses Choi and Kim of bribery, improper influence on public prosecutors, forgery, fraud, perjury, and obstruction of justice. None of his legal petitions or complaints have gained any results.