Trump administration denies entry visa to a Democratic Party lawmaker

Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Jung Chung-rae, a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, was found to have not yet received a U.S. visa as of the 8th, three days before his scheduled departure for a parliamentary audit of overseas missions. The specific reason for the delay in issuing the visa to Rep. Jung has not been confirmed.
According to Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee members, Rep. Jung was the only lawmaker assigned to the Americas audit team whose U.S. visa issuance was pending. A source from the committee stated, “Our departure is on the 11th, but with Hangeul Day and the weekend in between, if it hasn’t come out by today (the 8th), there’s no possibility of additional issuance.” The committee’s Americas team comprises seven members, including Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee Chairman Song Seok-jun, People Power Party Reps. Ko Dong-jin and Kim Geon, Democratic Party Reps. Maeng Seong-gyu, Park Sung-jun, and Jung Chung-rae, and independent Rep. Han Dong-hoon. They were scheduled to depart on the 11th and conduct a nine-night, 12-day audit of the South Korean Embassy in the U.S. and the South Korean Mission to the United Nations until the 22nd.

Rep. Jung wrote on his Facebook, “I applied for an official business visa to the U.S. State Department for the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee’s parliamentary audit of overseas missions, but it’s still under review, so I had no choice but to go to Europe for the audit.” He added, “I don’t know the reason for the ongoing review. It’s regrettable.” He continued, “No matter where I go for the overseas audit, I will do my best in legislative activities for the national interest of the Republic of Korea.” Rep. Jung had previously changed his audit region in 2013 after his U.S. visa was denied.
Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok expressed strong regret over the visa delay for the former ruling party leader, a respected four-term veteran, via X (formerly Twitter) and said, “We hope the South Korean and U.S. authorities will swiftly and actively resolve the issue.”
Rep. Jung also failed to participate in the 2013 Americas audit in October of that year after failing to obtain a U.S. visa. At the time, he was notified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that his visa was denied just before the audit began and moved from the Americas team to the Europe audit team. There were speculations that his participation in the 1989 occupation protest of the U.S. ambassador’s residence by the ‘Jeondaehyup Resolution Squad’ might have affected the visa issuance. However, in 2012, the previous year, he received a single-entry visa and participated in the Americas audit, and in January 2014, he visited the U.S. as a secretary-general of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee.