New human rights agency chief Hyun Byung-chul came under fire Sunday for allegedly plagiarizing his own academic papers in 1989 and 2002.
The allegation is expected to deal a fresh blow to President Lee Myung-bak …
Hyun, a law professor at Hanyang University, allegedly copied many paragraphs from his papers published in 1986 and 1998 for other papers published by different journals in 1989 and 2002, respectively, the Hankyoreh newspaper reported.
The original papers and the copied ones had different titles and some different sentences, but virtually are the same, it said, quoting legal experts. Hyun failed to identify quotations or reveal the source of information in the copied papers.
Hyun denied the report, saying he wrote about different subjects in the papers, but they could carry the same sentences…
Hyun had been president of Hanyang Cyber University, an Internet unit of Hanyang, since March 2006…
Earlier, presidential secretary designate for social affairs Park Mee-seok, a former professor at Sookmyung University in Seoul, resigned for plagiarizing her student’s thesis for one of her past research papers.
In 2006, then education minister Kim Byong-joon stepped down from his post, taking responsibility for a thesis plagiarism scandal only 12 days after taking office…