Yonsei University's Unprecedented Retest?... The position of the examinee in the lawsuit is...

■ Host: Anchor Jeong Jin-hyung and anchor Lee Eun-sol
■ Appearing: Lawyer Kim Jeong-sun, legal representative for Yonsei University litigation examinees

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN New Square 8PM] when quoting.

[Anchor]
Confusion among test takers is growing as the preliminary leak of Yonsei University's essay questions for the 2025 academic year has turned into a legal dispute. The interrogation was conducted today as Yonsei University challenged the court's decision to suspend the effectiveness of the natural essay test. Let's talk in detail with the examinee's legal representative and lawyer Kim Jung-sun, who filed a class action lawsuit against Yonsei University. Please come in. Lawyer, first of all, it seems that this issue is a little complicated from the perspective of outsiders, so first of all, it would be good for our lawyer to organize how this issue has been flowing so far by timeline.

[Kim Jung-sun]
First of all, on October 12, Yonsei University's essay test was held. There was a controversy that fairness was violated due to the problem in the test, so we filed a provisional injunction and a main lawsuit on October 21, requesting the suspension of the test procedure and the implementation of the retest, invalidation of the test, and invalidation of the test. A provisional interrogation date was set on October 29 and a provisional injunction decision was made on November 15. Here, I cited the suspension of the essay examination process by citing the examinee's side, and on that day, Yonsei University filed an objection. And today, November 19th, I had an objection interrogation date.

[Anchor]
Yonsei filed an objection, and I think the interrogation about it was today. Then the lawyer must have been there, how was it?

[Kim Jung-sun]
There was no special story, and we insisted on what we had insisted on until now again. Yonsei University acknowledges the infringement of fairness by repeating the same thing, but it is not serious. Then, I repeatedly argued that the retest was impossible because of the tight schedule with the well-intentioned victim. If the fairness of this test has been violated, the examinee has lost its function as a test and there is no such thing as a victim of good faith. And the damage to more than 10,000 test takers who took the test, which lacked fairness, is greater than the expectation of about 260 preliminary successful applicants. I made this argument. And they insisted that the re-exam schedule is enough because the occasional schedule is still more than a month away.

[Anchor]
What are you saying is enough?

[Kim Jung-sun]
It's still the end of November, so if you want to prepare and retake the test from now on, I think the retest can be scored as early as 15 days.

[Anchor]
After the interrogation today, we will listen to the remarks from Yonsei University that made the objection and what position it expressed.

[Kim Sun-tae / Yonsei University's legal representative: Most test takers are not responsible for the incident, did not cheat, and studied hard just for the essay test, but if such a situation causes irreparable damage to the test takers, it is not an option in the light of an educator's conscience. ]

[Anchor]
In today's interrogation, please proceed with the entrance examination schedule of other departments except for the departments applied by the students who filed the lawsuit. That's what I asked for. As I said, there is no alternative to the possibility of retesting and on-time carryover. I said this position. What do you think of this part?

[Kim Jung-sun]
In fact, if I had thought of the students, I don't think Yonsei University would have dragged the lawsuit this long. In fact, even though it has been revealed to be seriously unfair here and there since October 12th, no action has been taken yet. Even though the injunction decision was made on November 15, it has seriously lost fairness there and has not functioned as a test, but it has not yet acknowledged it and continues to drag on by appealing again. But if it's really the conscience of an educator and the best educational institution in Korea, I think we should not think about how we will lose ourselves, but think about how to minimize the damage to the examinees. In order to quickly add such concerns and maintain conscience as the nation's top educational institution, I think it is necessary to quickly retake the test regardless of the results of the trial so that it will no longer harm the examinees.

[Anchor]
Then, what is Yonsei University's claim that it should be resolved, and what is Yonsei University's claim?

[Kim Jung-sun]
If it is confirmed that it is invalid now, there seems to be nothing more to claim. He himself answered that carrying over on time cannot be an alternative to today's deadline for filing an objection.

[Anchor]
But there were a lot of reports about it. about the possibility of carrying over on time

[Kim Jung-sun]
Until then, there were a lot of them and they continued to insist on carrying over on time, but in today's provisional hearing, I don't think about carrying over on time because there are more victims. He said this today.

[Anchor]
examinees who filed an invalidation suit How many did you say there were 200 people?

[Kim Jung-sun]
There are currently 18 test takers.

[Anchor]
Then, these test takers are in the position that they need to retake the test because the fairness of the test has been undermined. Then, please explain in detail how fairness has been damaged.

[Kim Jung-sun]
The most problematic part was that there was a pre-questionnaire distribution an hour before the start of the test at a test site, and students were exposed to it for 15 minutes, and the school claimed for 3 minutes, and after that, they recognized the mistake and collected the test again, they were given 20 to 30 minutes of free time. And I took the test again an hour later. In this process, students who were already exposed to the questionnaire were in a position to solve the problem in their favor first, and the more controversial part was the second leak. That's why it became the biggest controversy over fairness because things like solving it with ChatGPT, delivering it to other students outside the test site, or taking a picture of the test paper and asking the outside teacher. In addition to this test site, it is said that there were many problems during the process of correcting the error problem. There were some students who misunderstood the problem and solved it by broadcasting it in a time, method, or intermediate sense by test site, and there was a possibility of a proxy test because ID and face check were not done properly, and the test site was very narrow, but there was a lack of supervisors. For example, five supervisors were assigned to a test site with 300 people. However, the problem was that although this test was an essay, it was an environment where cheating was sufficiently possible because it was a test that gave 50 multiple-choice points.
And there was also a statement of cheating like this. Lastly, he freely entered the bathroom, but he did not check whether he had a cell phone. Overall, there was no process of turning off or walking and submitting a cell phone, so students who took pictures from time to time were also found, so these overall problems are considered to be infringed on fairness.

[Anchor]
The entrance examination is one of the big events in Korea, and I wonder if the trust with the applicants has been broken. Yonsei University will decide its position after seeing the results of the main lawsuit. I didn't provide any clear solutions, but what do you think of this part?

[Kim Jung-sun]
In fact, the main lawsuit may be prolonged, so I think waiting for the results of the main lawsuit is the same as betraying the conscience of the educator mentioned earlier. And I hope the current main lawsuit will come out as soon as possible, but we don't know when the main lawsuit will come out, so I think the most reasonable way to do it is not to produce damage to each other by making a test decision first.

[Anchor]
Then what happens if the results of the main lawsuit don't come out? So, on the 13th of next month, the successful applicants for occasional recruitment from Yonsei University as well as each university will be announced, and on the 27th, the registration for occasional recruitment will be finalized. If the main lawsuit is not ruled by then, what can we think about the scenario after that?

[Kim Jung-sun]
The purpose of our claim in the main lawsuit is that the main claim is to re-examine the test, but if that doesn't work, we are preliminarily requesting to receive an invalidity confirmation lawsuit. So if the retest is not due to the deadline. If that happens, it will be invalidated, and I don't know when the invalidation will be confirmed after that, but then it will be a huge amount of damages, and the provisional disposition will continue to be suspended until it is ruled, so Yonsei University cannot go through these procedures, such as carrying over on time or re-electing occasional admission.

[Anchor]
If the test is confirmed to be invalid, please point out last how the follow-up procedure will proceed.

[Kim Jung-sun]
In the case of follow-up procedures, it is the on-time carry-over or occasional re-test implementation that can be decided after the test is invalidated. I think the retest will be possible only if it's done quickly. If not, it seems that there is still compensation for damages after going to invalidation confirmation.

[Anchor]
In fact, when the court cites an application for provisional injunction, it leaves the decision to Yonsei University for countermeasures or follow-up measures. I know you made this order, but I don't think there is an alternative like this. That's why it's a bit frustrating. So YTN also asked Yonsei University for an interview, and they said they would replace it with the statement they announced yesterday. So let's stop listening to this question. I took a look at the Yonsei University re-examination controversy with lawyer Kim Jung-sun. Thank you for talking today, lawyer.