U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there seemed to be one visa case where conduct from some 20 years ago had raised concerns. Seoul dismisses talk of an alliance rift while the opposition calls it a warning sign, turning the visa issue into a political flashpoint.
According to a Kyunghyang Shinmun report from its Washington correspondent, Rubio told a press conference on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta on the 31st (local time) that delays in visas for Korean lawmakers would be handled through bilateral consultations. Asked about concerns over ties, he replied that there seemed to have been a visa case involving one individual whose conduct about 20 years ago had been questioned.
광고 문의 · 300×250Kyunghyang said the case appears to be that of Jin Sung-joon, chair of the National Assembly's defense committee. Jin applied for an official (A-2) visa to visit U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii; it was reportedly refused at one point and issued late. Jin was sentenced in 1991 to three years in prison for violating the National Security Act, though he visited the same command in 2014 as a committee member. The U.S. side has not officially confirmed the reason for any refusal.
The Chung Chung-rae case and Seoul's response
Earlier, in early October, Democratic lawmaker Chung Chung-rae applied for a U.S. visa for a foreign affairs committee audit trip, but it was put on hold and he joined the Europe team instead. Kyunghyang added that Chung had led a 1989 occupation of the U.S. ambassador's residence and was jailed under the National Security Act. The Foreign Ministry says individual visa outcomes are confidential under U.S. law.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun dismissed talk of an alliance rift as ‘utterly absurd’ at an audit on the 27th. The Korea Times reported that Cho said the two countries can differ while keeping a fundamentally sound relationship; background friction cited included implementing last year's summit deal, intelligence sharing on North Korea and Seoul's push to retake wartime operational control. The Chosun Ilbo ran a piece on the 2nd titled roughly ‘Visa denial, OPCON dispute: public anxious over alliance cracks’; we could not read its text, so its specifics are unconfirmed.
Party reactions and the North Korea variable
The Democratic Party, in a statement by spokesperson Lee Yong-woo on the 28th, called the move unbecoming of an ally and urged Washington to correct it. The People Power Party said it showed worsening ties, while Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok cited Jin's past security-law case and said allies should respect each other's sovereignty.
At the same press conference Rubio said President Trump is ready to meet Kim Jong-un but that no meeting is scheduled. SBS Biz reported on October 9 that a Korea-U.S. summit at the December G20 leaders' meeting in Miami could quiet the rift talk. Whether the November 1-5 Hawaii trip that Jin's delegation planned actually took place is unconfirmed.