Online instructor Hyun Woo-jin faces 1-year prison sentence request for trading exam questions worth hundreds of millions of won

A prominent South Korean online instructor, Hyun Woo-jin, has been requested to serve a one-year prison sentence for allegedly purchasing mock exam questions for the national college entrance exam (Suneung) from active teachers. The first trial for the alleged violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act took place at the Seoul Central District Court.

Prosecutors are seeking the sentence for Hyun and two active teachers who allegedly sold him the questions, as well as an employee of a textbook development company. They argue that such transactions allow private academies to gain advance knowledge of exam trends, deepening educational inequality among students with different economic backgrounds and undermining the foundation of public education.

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This is an infringement on public interest, as active teachers selling questions to private academies allows some students to gain prior access to exam trends. This exacerbates educational inequality among students with different economic backgrounds and undermines the foundation of public education.

Hyun and the other defendants have pleaded not guilty, asserting that the payments were legitimate compensation for services rendered and do not constitute a violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act. In his final statement, Hyun expressed his hurt, feeling that the work of teachers was being unfairly invalidated. He maintained that his classes focus on Suneung preparation, not internal school assessments, and that the problems he acquired were unrelated to school grades.

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I am heartbroken that the work of school teachers, who work hard, seems to be invalidated. I am not someone who teaches internal school classes, and the problems the teachers produced were for the Suneung, unrelated to internal school grades.