The cheaters are not from the working class.
They are from the have families in their region.
Don’t make little of the local powers.
The local powers have enough money and solid connections with other local or central powers. Let’s think of Kim Dae-Jung and Kim Young -Sam.

And the children of the power are instilled with pride and arrogance, for they have strong background. Their mother will do anything. In the case of money deficit, their mom will sell their body to supply the exorbitant extracurricular expenses of their children. Korean moms’ skirt-wind is notorious.
(I wonder if there’s any mom who has extramarital relations to the teachers to have their children get a good schoolwork grade. If so, it’s an example of two birds with one stone.)
As a natural result, the children of the power have top record at school and easily instated to the president of the students at an elemetary school or even onto the high school.
In this way, the children of the local power become indulged in DELUSION OF GRANDEUR.
They have achieved something, but with no sweat and with no stronghold.
At the time of wider world, inner conflict begins. They sense that they are nothing in a wider world. And cheating begins to show off to the hometown plain people.

Do not pull out 학벌. The cheaters actively made use of the name of self-asserted universities.

So is being a plumber, a teacher, or a nurse, but I don’t see many of them calling themselves doctors.

It may be a licensed profession, but the Doctor of Chiropractic title is just to further take advantage of the fact that people will believe anything a guy in a white lab coat will tell them. Do you believe that your health depends on how your spine’s alignment? I know people with a hunchback who lead perfectly healthy lives.

Because “chiropractic” is a state recognized and licensed profession just like medicine (in the US anyway, don’t know about the ROK).

“…All States and the District of Columbia regulate the practice of chiropractic and grant licenses to chiropractors who meet the educational and examination requirements established by the State. Chiropractors can practice only in States where they are licensed….
Most State boards require at least 2 years of undergraduate education; an increasing number are requiring a 4-year bachelor’s degree. All boards require the completion of a 4-year program at an accredited chiropractic college leading to the Doctor of Chiropractic degree.

For licensure, most State boards recognize either all or part of the four-part test administered by the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners….

In 2005, 15 chiropractic programs and 2 chiropractic institutions in the United States were accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education…”

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos071.htm#training

I’m probably better at diagnosing certain physical illnesses than a medical doctor (for real). Should I make a career out of practicing medicine then and lie that I got a medical degree to get credibility? Gee, what should happen to my job at a hospital if it was found out I LIED about getting a medical degree?

The example of the medical doctor is a poor one. There is a law called the Medical Services Act concerning the practice of medicine which defines the qualifications for being a doctor. Among them is graduation from an approved medical school. But unless there is a Korean law requiring that someone who “teaches” English on TV has a teaching credential or a foreign graduate degree (I haven’t checked and there are a ton of special laws here), this would not be analogous to the case of Ms. Lee.

Creation of fake diplomas is the crime of “Forgery or Alteration of a Private Document” (Art. 231 of the Korean Criminal Code). The punishment is a jail term of up to five years or a fine of up to 10 million won.

It doesn’t matter if the degree is an international degree or a domestic one.

However, the foreigner who submits that fake diploma to the Ministry of Justice to obtain an immigration visa, or the employer who does so, also violates the Immigration Control Act’s criminal provisions. That’s what’s different between the Korean and foreign degree-faker.

Lately, there has been a trend for police and prosecutors to claim that the employee defrauded the employer of wages for the period of employment — because if not for the fake diploma the employee would not have been hired. Fraud (Art. 347) carries a potential sentence up to 10 years in jail or a fine of up to 20 million won.

We don’t have hard data on sentences, but my partner who was a judge says that sentences for forgery are generally pretty light — usually a fine of W1,000,000-3,000,000. We similarly don’t know about whether the fraud prosecution angle is a winner or not.