Chung is now middle school graduate only

Seoul’s education authority announced Monday it will revoke the high school diploma of presidential friend Choi Soon-sil’s daughter.

This would leave 20-year-old Chung Yoo-ra, who allegedly graduated from Chungdam High School in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, a middle school graduate. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, however, said it will be “difficult” to revoke her middle school degree as well because the office could not confirm whether the documents she submitted at that time, to excuse her absences, were fake.

The result comes weeks after an interim briefing on accusations that Chung gained admission to Ewha Womans University last year as a dressage athlete by cheating her way through middle and high school. During the briefing on Nov. 16, the education office announced that she was “widely granted special treatment” on her test and class attendance scores at those two institutes.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Monday it would formally request prosecutors to look into seven officials at Chungdam High School and three from Sunhwa Arts School in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, the middle school from which Chung allegedly graduated, in order to decide how severely to punish them.

Prosecutors have already begun digging into Chung’s time at Ewha. After a separate probe at the school, the trustee board of Ewha demanded the school last Friday to “eternally expel” Chung.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]