Seoul grounds Korean Air dynasty’s academic flight
SEOUL: Korean Air’s chairman was disqualified from heading an academic foundation by the government yesterday and his son stripped of his degree in the latest woes to assail the dynasty.
Cho Yang-ho’s wife and daughters were already being investigated over alleged assaults, smuggling and illegal hiring of foreign housekeepers.
The two younger women, who held management positions at Korean Air, became viral sensations for temper tantrums dubbed the ‘nut rage’ and ‘water rage’ scandals online.
And the flag carrier’s 69-yearold patriarch was himself grilled by prosecutors late last month over alleged tax evasion and other crimes.
The education ministry yesterday withdrew its approval of Cho as head of the Jungseok-Inha School Foundation, which controls Inha University in Incheon, citing a spate of irregularities.
It also asserted that the school’s admission and graduation of Cho’s son Cho Won-tae, now the Korean Air president, were flawed and cancelled his bachelor’s degree.
The son was allegedly short of the required academic standards when he transferred to the university from a US college in 1998, and was given a degree in business administration in 2003 despite not having the necessary points, the ministry said.
A month-long investigation also found the school awarded contracts worth millions of dollars to companies associated with the Cho family, disadvantaging potential competitors.
“We will take stern measures ... so that irregularities that have been found can be corrected at an early date,” education minister Kim Sang-gon said in a statement, adding the ministry would ask prosecutors to start a criminal inquiry into Cho and his wife Lee Myung-hee.