S. Korean parents turn to crime over school access

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday charged 47 parents with forging documents to enrol their children in foreign-run schools to give them an edge in the country's hyper-competitive education system.

Among those indicted was a 37-year-old housewife, identified by her surname Kwon, who hired a broker in 2009 to create false British and Bulgarian passports, the prosecutors' office in the western city of Incheon said.

Foreigner-only schools in South Korea require at least one of their students' parents to be a foreign citizen, and Kwon used the passports to gain admission for her daughter.

She was also accused of faking a Guatemalan passport to transfer her daughter to another school.