South Korean lawmaker was denied a diplomatic US visa apparently for his past conviction dating back to the 1990s.
A South Korean lawmaker who was initially denied a US visa over a decades-old criminal conviction was issued an official A-2 visa three days later, following diplomatic intervention involving US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The controversy centred on Jin’s 1991 conviction under South Korea’s National Security Act, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison and a three-year suspension of his civil rights. Jin was seeking an A-2 visa, a category issued to foreign government officials travelling to the United States on official government business. He was scheduled to join a bipartisan South Korean parliamentary delegation visiting the US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii from November 1 to 5. Jin announced the initial rejection on October 28 through a Facebook post, sharing what appeared to be a US visa refusal notice. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun also raised the issue with Rubio on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta on October 30. The lawmaker departed for Hawaii on November 1 with a bipartisan delegation that included Democratic Party lawmakers Kim Byung-joo and Jin himself, along with People Power Party lawmaker Lim Jong-deuk and Reform Party lawmaker Chun Ha-ram.
The exact reason for the initial visa refusal was not officially confirmed, although the lawmaker’s past conviction was widely cited as a possible factor.
“I think there was one particular visa individually that there was an issue about regarding behavior perhaps a couple decades ago, but we’ll work through that at a bilateral basis, not in a press conference,” Rubio said. The delegation is scheduled to meet senior US military officials, including the commander of the US Pacific Command, to discuss bilateral security cooperation.