S. Korea Halts National Exam After Test Theft

South Korea has canceled its college entrance tests nationwide after a school guard stole the exam to help the daughter of a poor woman in his church.

While such a theft may seem minor elsewhere in the world, the reaction Thursday in this fiercely competitive and educationally minded country has been swift: The education minister resigned, saying he was ultimately responsible for the transgression, then President Roh Tae Woo himself apologized.

The public furor has yet to abate, prompting many South Koreans to re-examine some of their ideas about how far they should go to try to get ahead.

After the theft was discovered Tuesday, an emergency meeting of the Cabinet was held, and Roh called off the exam, which had been set for Wednesday. That upset many of the 300,000 students preparing to take the all-day test, which is offered twice a year.

Competition is rigorous to get into South Korean universities--only one in four who take the test is admitted.

Nearly everybody here is affected on test days: Offices change working hours to decrease traffic; buses and subways increase service to help students reach exams on time, and no other major events are scheduled.

The exam itself is treated as a classified document, transported by armed guards to test sites and kept under lock until test day.

Newspapers and television reported the theft as they might have covered a sensational murder.

And opposition politicians demanded a parliamentary investigation of education policies.

Education Minister Yoon Young Sup quit Wednesday, and his replacement, Cho Wan Kyoo, said Thursday that he will push to abolish the state-controlled exam and to give more autonomy to colleges and universities.

The theft was discovered at Seoul Theological Seminary, a small church school that was one of the testing sites.

A school guard, Chong Kye Taik, 44, originally told police that he spotted a broken window and found the cardboard boxes holding the exams cut open. He later confessed to stealing the exam himself and could face up to 10 years in jail.

Chong, who never went to college, is a devout Christian.

“I feel like dying,” he said. “I never thought that it would bring such a big impact. I simply wanted to help a poor but bright girl who wants to go to college.”

The examination is now being rewritten, with new tests scheduled for Feb. 10.