Were the parents of students at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) kicked out of their children's graduation ceremony? No, that's not true: Only one KAIST graduate was dragged out of the ceremony after protesting against President Yoon Suk Yeol. Many KAIST parents were redirected to an auditorium next door after the main entrance was blocked before the ceremony began.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by @kingmidas7889 on February 18, 2024. The caption (translated from Korean to English by Lead Stories staff) read:
'KAIST's parents were also kicked out.'
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Feb 21 16:13:40 2024 UTC)
The mother of a graduate recounted the KAIST graduation ceremony held on February 16, 2024, in a first-person account with the Korean newspaper Oh My News (archived here) published on February 18, 2024.
She said students were notified the night before that Yoon would be attending the graduation ceremony, and parents were told to arrive on time. Upon arrival before the ceremony began, many parents were directed to an auditorium next door with a large screen. The auditorium was considered full despite the many empty seats for security reasons.
When security officials prevented the graduates' families from entering the main auditorium, they began to protest, the mother wrote (as translated):
Only then were they allowed in in one by one, and I think there were about 200 more people [who were allowed in].
The claim emerged when several presidential security guards dragged out a KAIST graduate (archived here) who was protesting the government's budget cut for research and development during Yoon's congratulatory speech. No one else was removed from the ceremony. The KAIST graduate was identified as Shin Min Ki, spokesperson for the Daejeon City Party of the Green Justice Party.
According to Kyunghyang Shinmun's exclusive interview with Shin (archived here), he said (as translated):
Five to six security guards wearing graduation uniforms covered my mouth, grabbed my arms and legs, and dragged me down the hallway.
The article stated that the government's national research and development budget was cut by 15 percent this year to 26.5 trillion won ($19.9 billion), down from 31 trillion won ($23.3 billion) last year. It's considered the first time the budget has decreased since 1991.
The presidential office released a statement on February 17, 2024, about what happened at the university, published by various South Korean newspapers (archived here). The statement said (as translated):
There was a disturbance at the KAIST degree ceremony that President Yoon attended this afternoon and the presidential security service separated the disturbers to ensure the safety of the guards in the guarded area and to establish order at the event.
