Democratic Party calls for reinvestigation into Han Dong-hoon's daughter's thesis; Han fires back over Kim Min-seok's son's legislation

The Democratic Party of Korea and independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon traded barbs Sunday, each resurrecting past allegations involving the other's child.

The Democratic Party called for a police reinvestigation into allegations that Han's daughter had a research paper ghostwritten for her during high school, while Han fired back by raising questions about how a proposal drafted by Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok's son in high school ended up being introduced as actual legislation — which Han called a "privatization of public office."

Park Sung-joon, the Democratic Party's chief spokesperson, revived the ghostwriting allegations against Han's daughter in a written briefing Sunday and urged police to reopen the investigation. The party escalated its offensive over the weekend, issuing seven statements on allegations related to Han's daughter over two days.

The controversy centers on a paper registered in an overseas academic journal in 2021, when Han's daughter was a first-year high school student. Suspicions of ghostwriting arose after the name "Benson" appeared in the document's author metadata and the individual indicated in a past domestic media interview that they had been involved in writing the paper. The issue also surfaced during Han's confirmation hearing when he was nominated as minister of justice.

The Democratic Party also raised claims at a recent national audit of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee that police investigating the allegations had sought international criminal justice cooperation with the United States, but that the process stalled at the prosecutors' stage. The party said the entire investigation at the time, including the ghostwriting allegations, should be reexamined.

Han, in turn, revived allegations that Democratic Party lawmakers had introduced legislation based on a proposal drafted by Kim's son when he was a high school student.

In a Facebook post Sunday, Han named Kim and Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Deuk-gu, among others, saying, "The father and Democratic Party lawmakers actually introduced legislation that a high school student — the son of a National Assembly member — had personally drafted." Han called it "a privatization of public office and a matter for investigation."

The legislation Han pointed to is an amendment to the Framework Act on Education related to plagiarism prevention education, which Kang introduced as the lead sponsor during the 21st National Assembly.

Kim's son, while attending high school, drafted a preliminary bill through a school club that would have made plagiarism prevention education mandatory. A bill with similar content was subsequently introduced in the National Assembly, with Kim listed as a co-sponsor.

The issue had also drawn scrutiny during Kim's confirmation hearing last year, when he was nominated as prime minister. Kim said at the time that his son's activities had not been used in his college admissions process.

Kang, who led the bill's introduction, rebuffed Han's claims. Kang said Kim "had no knowledge of it whatsoever until I asked him to co-sponsor," adding that he introduced the bill because he found the student club's policy proposal worthwhile.