A group of university professors have asserted that the doctoral thesis and journal articles by First Lady Kim Keon-hee were in fact plagiarized.

Holding a press conference on Tuesday, a group representing 14 organizations claimed that their analysis of Kim’s thesis concluded that it is an aggregation of plagiarism in terms of its content, specific sentences and concept.

They said Kim took parts of a thesis written by Gu Yeon-sang, a general education professor at Sookmyung Women's University, and copied postings and articles from privately-run blogs without citation.

The professors further accused Kim of plagiarism in three different published journal articles.

The group’s conclusion contrasts with that of Kookmin University, Kim’s doctoral alma mater, which determined that her thesis and two of the three journal articles do not constitute research fraud, and the third journal article was unverifiable.

The professors urged the university to withdraw its investigation outcome and called on the education ministry and the National Research Foundation to put forth follow-up measures.