This should really be over: Tablo graduated

Home > National > Social Affairs

print dictionary print

This should really be over: Tablo graduated

The matter over Tablo should be settled. Period.

Police yesterday confirmed that Tablo did, indeed, graduate from Stanford University in the United States.

And now the Internet war over the authenticity of the Korean hip-hop group leader’s education may finally end with yesterday’s police announcement.

The Seocho Police Precinct yesterday also said police were planning to request an arrest warrant for the man behind the Internet user name “whatbecomes,” surnamed Kim.

Kim, 57, is said to be a U.S. citizen and was one of 22 Internet users sued for defamation by Tablo in August.

Kim has run the Internet cafe, “We Request the Truth from Tablo,” more familiarly known as “TaJinYo” in Korean. The cafe, which has roughly 180,000 members, has continuously raised doubts about Tablo’s academic credentials.

Police said Kim could be found guilty of violating the resident registration law because Kim ran “TaJinYo” by using the resident registration number of a friend surnamed Park and had admitted to another friend he had “no choice, as he was a foreign resident.”

“We requested that Kim appear for questioning several times, but he has refused, saying he had made posts ‘in a fair manner.’ We plan to request an arrest warrant for Kim and also get help from Interpol,” said police.

Police have also filed summonses for 20 other Internet users sued by Tablo.

The singer, who has been dogged by questions from Internet users since late last year about his university diploma, provided the JoongAng Daily in June with formal documents from Stanford University confirming his attendance at the school, as well as transcripts of student records.

However, Internet users refused to desist in their accusations, and the singer filed lawsuits two months later. Internet users also filed suit against Tablo, demanding that authorities investigate the truth into his academic credits.

Documents turned in by Tablo were given to the digital forensic center at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, which determined they were genuine after comparing them with Stanford’s.

The police also confirmed Tablo’s attendance from immigration records.


By Christine Kim, Song Ji-hye [christine.kim@joongang.co.kr]

Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)