South Korea's education system is highly respected.But there are concerns that academic dishonestycould harm its image in the world.That dishonesty includes cases of falsified research.And in recent months,two South Korean lawmakers have faced accusationsthat they copied work for their doctoral dissertations.Of course, problems like these are not limited to South Korea.In April, Hungary's President Pal Schmitt resignedafter a Hungarian university withdrew his doctoral title.A committee found that most of the pages of his dissertationon the modern Olympics "were either direct translationsor showed partial similarity to other works."Mr. Kim is a graduate student at Korea Universitywho asked to be identified only by his family name.He says Koreans may not have a well-established understanding of plagiarism.He attended schools in the United States and saysAmericans seemed to understandthat claiming other people's work as their own is wrong.MR. KIM: "In Korea, that history may not be as long.So there still isn't a huge consensus, in general,amongst all Koreans as to what plagiarism actually means.What is the extent of plagiarismand whether plagiarism itself is acceptable or not."A VOA reporter asked South Korea's education minister, Lee Ju-ho,how seriously he takes the problem of plagiarism.Mr. Lee said the problem is not as bad as it used to be.He says these incidents gained a lot of attention seven or eight years ago.But he says the problem has mainly disappearedsince then because of increased awareness and training.Still, the education minister says he wantsto put more effort into eliminating plagiarism.Mr. Kim, the graduate student, says current effortsto educate college students about plagiarismare not very effective.MR. KIM: "Korean universities usually haveat least one class or some kind of seminarin the beginning of the semesterto talk about plagiarism.But as far as I know it is also quite optional.So there are a lot of peoplewho just do not go to the seminar."He say British and American professorswho teach at South Korean collegesare helping to fight plagiarism.MR. KIM: "One professor in my grad schoolfound a student plagiarizingand automatically gave that student a zero.And I am hearing more of those these days."Lee In-jae is a professor of ethics educationat Seoul National University of Education.He says the training should start in elementary school.He says children should learnthat copying their classmates' homework or notidentifying their sources of information is wrong.If they understand that, he says,then they will be able to write honest papers later in life.Michael Neil Shapiro, a Canadian,taught at seven different South Korean universities."In Korea," he says, "there are both ancientand modern reasons for thinking that it's OKto use other people's ideas without giving specific credit."But, East or West, he says,one reason for plagiarism is the same:"intellectual laziness" and the hope not to be discovered.And that's the VOA Special English Education Report.