SEOUL, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - A South Korean agency said Thursday it will investigate the academic backgrounds of tens of thousands of civil servants amid a fake degree scandal gripping the country.

The probe will be conducted by the Civil Service Commission, a government agency handling appointments and promotions for 63,000 civil servants.

"We are checking the authenticity of the academic degrees of all civil servants," a commission spokesperson told AFP.

She said the probe should be finished by year-end, when the commission introduces an electronic personnel record system. "Those who were found to have forged academic degrees will be punished," she said.

Over the past month dozens of celebrities from South Korea's cultural, entertainment and religious worlds have either confessed to faking their academic records or were found out.

Early this month Dongguk University fired Shin Jeong-Ah, a 35-year-old top curator who was found to have forged undergraduate and master's degree certificates from the University of Kansas and Yale University.

The case sparked many revelations and confessions.

Dankook University decided to fire Professor Kim Ok-Rang, an influential artistic figure accused of lying about her qualifications.

The two schools have checked the credentials of all faculty members.

The Korean Council for University Education, representing 201 universities nationwide, plans to launch the country's first system for diploma verification.

Prosecutors have also launched an unprecedented campaign to identify and punish those who have secured positions with fake diplomas or certificates.

Education experts say the tendency to emphasise paper qualifications rather than ability, combined with loose verification systems, tempts some Koreans to forge academic backgrounds.