IOC suspends South Korea’s Moon Dae-sung over plagiarism allegations

Moon Dae-sung's eight-year term as an IOC member was due to end after this year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

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IOC said that that Moon Dae-Sung’s membership will be suspended until South Korea’s Supreme Court reaches a verdict. (Source: AP)

South Korea’s Moon Dae-sung has been suspended as a member of the International Olympic Committee over allegations that he plagiarized his doctoral thesis.

The IOC said that that Moon’s membership will be suspended until South Korea’s Supreme Court reaches a verdict over his dispute with a Seoul university, which stripped him of his degree in 2014 after concluding that he stole from the works of another researcher.

The IOC said the decision was recommended by its Ethics Commission, citing damage to the reputation of the Olympic Movement.

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Moon’s eight-year term as an IOC member is due to end after this year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

After winning the men’s heavyweight gold in taekwondo in the 2004 Athens Games, Moon pursued a career in international sports administration and also served in South Korea’s Parliament as a lawmaker from 2012 to 2016.

He received a doctorate in sports psychology from Kookmin University in 2007, but, following a two-year investigation, the school stripped Moon of the degree in 2014 after ruling that he had copied large parts of his work from the studies of another researcher.

Moon responded with a lawsuit against Kookmin, but lower courts ruled in favor of the university before he appealed to the country’s highest court.