Candidate Joo-ho Lee, Deputy Prime Minister of Social Affairs and Minister of Education. The reporter Hwang Jin-hwan
Lee Joo-ho’s 34-year-old daughter, candidate for vice premier and minister of education, has been confirmed to have dual citizenship (dual nationality) who has not renounced her American citizenship.
On the 17th, the office of Rep. Seo Dong-yong, a member of the National Assembly Education Committee, confirmed with the Ministry of Education Staff Hearing Preparation Team that Lee’s daughter submitted the “oath of non-foreign nationality” to the Ministry of Justice on 9 June 2010 and retained multiple citizenship on 20 July. . The daughter was born in the United States and has multiple nationalities.
Korea no longer allows citizenships, so people with multiple citizenships had to choose a nationality before turning 22. However, with the revision of the nationality law in May 2010, multiple citizenships were allowed if the “oath of non-existence of foreign nationality” was presented to the Ministry of Justice. The “oath of non-existence of foreign nationality” is a commitment not to exercise foreign citizenship in Korea.
However, the moment her daughter decided to keep dual citizenship was when Lee was the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. In response, Representative Seo Dong-yong said: “Allowing a candidate to have dual citizenship so that he can live as an American in the United States and as a Korean in Korea while serving as a high-ranking civil servant in the service of Korea. and the people are not worthy of a position that requires high morality. “
The reporter Hwang Jin-hwan
After graduating from foreign language high school, Lee’s daughter attended an Ivy League university in the United States, completed her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees, and now works as an assistant professor in the United States. Candidate Lee said in 2006 when she was a member of the National Assembly that “educational institutions called foreign language high schools can absorb the demand to study abroad and prevent the outflow of national wealth due to early schooling in foreign languages. abroad”. Rep. Seo criticized: “The candidate who was concerned about the loss of national wealth due to studying abroad at an early age actually sent his children to an Ivy League university with US citizenship after graduating from a prestigious high school of foreign languages ”.
In response, the Ministry of Education staff hearing preparation team said: “The candidate respected the wishes of the adult daughter.” June 2010, I pledged to “non-existence of a foreign nationality” and I chose more nationalities “.
Previously, former Minister of Education Song Ja in 2000 under the Kim Dae-jung administration and former Minister of Education and Human Resources Lee Ki-jun in 2005 under the Roh Moo-hyun administration they resigned from their ministerial posts due to the dual international problem of theirs It turned out that two daughters had multiple citizenships and both had to renounce American citizenship.
