The best participant in the tax consultant qualification exam in South Korea admitted to cheating with the help of artificial intelligence. The almost perfect result first brought him fame, then raised suspicions. Now the circumstances of the exam are being investigated by the Seoul police.

Han Won-seok spoke on November 15 on the YouTube channel of his lawyer Lee Dong-ho and stated that he had submitted a written confession to the police. As The Korea Times writes, he had previously denied accusations of using AI.

Attention was drawn to the results of the first stage of the exam held in April: Han correctly answered 159 out of 160 questions and scored 397.5 points out of a possible 400. In the second, written stage in July, he received 663 points out of 800 and became the best participant in the exam.

After the publication of his story about preparation, other candidates began discussing his unusually high scores. According to The Korea Herald, especially many questions were raised by the maximum 100 points in the basics of tax law: the average result of participants in this subject was only 30.18 points.

In his confession, Han spoke about a miniature camera, a smartphone and generative AI — a system capable of generating answers to queries. According to him, he photographed the tasks, transferred them to AI and looked at the answers on his phone. The specific service was not named in the cited messages.

However, initial suspicions concerned “smart” glasses. Han stated that he used a different set of devices, and refused to publicly disclose additional technical details, explaining this by reluctance to help others repeat the violation.

He admitted cheating in both stages of the tax consultant exam, as well as in the first stage of a separate exam for certified accountants. Police confirmed receipt of the statement and transfer of the case to an investigative unit, Yonhap agency reports.

A separate question is how the use of devices remained unnoticed. According to Aju Press, two proctors worked in each examination room. In the first stage, the candidate sat in the second row; in the second stage, in the first row, next to observers. All four subsequently reported to the organizer that they did not notice any suspicious behavior.

The Korea Human Resources Development Service, which organizes the exam, also acknowledged: participants were asked to turn off phones and leave them in bags, rather than submit them before the start of the test. After the confession, the agency began preparing an appeal to law enforcement authorities. Financial authorities announced their intention to suspend the document confirming successful passing of the exam.

The case has had consequences beyond one professional qualification. Amid preparations for the nationwide college entrance exam scheduled for November 19, the administration of the South Korean president organized an emergency discussion of measures against cheating with AI.

Public confession does not replace the results of the investigation and the final decision on qualification. Nor does this story show how reliably AI copes with the real work of a tax consultant: it concerns the use of prohibited assistance in the exam, not an independent verification of the professional capabilities of the technology.

Based on materials from: The Korea Times, Yonhap, The Korea Herald, Aju Press.