Jung says his US visa remains 'under review' at the State Department, forcing a last-minute switch to the Europe group; the same thing happened in 2013
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Jung Chung-rae, a member of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, had not received a US visa as of Thursday — three days before the committee's overseas national audit is set to begin — forcing him to switch from the Americas group to the Europe group for the trip.
The Americas group is scheduled to visit the United States, Brazil, Colombia and Canada over 12 days beginning Monday to audit South Korean diplomatic missions abroad. A committee official said the switch became necessary after Democratic Party lawmaker Han Jeong-ae and People Power Party lawmaker Park Chung-kwon, originally assigned to the Europe group, decided not to join that leg of the trip due to party business and other commitments.
The six other Americas group members — Democratic Party lawmakers Park Seong-jun and Maeng Seong-gyu, Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee Chairman Song Seok-jun of the People Power Party, PPP lawmakers Ko Dong-jin and Kim Geon, and independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon — have either completed the visa process or are set to depart using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, which allows visa-free entry to the United States.
Jung wrote on Facebook on Thursday evening that he had originally planned to travel with the Americas group but received word from his aide that his US visa remained "under review" at the Department of State as of Thursday. "I could not keep waiting in a state of neither approval nor denial, so I urgently applied to switch to the Europe group," he wrote.
"Since it is still under review, I had no choice but to join the Europe audit," Jung said. "I don't really know the reason. I find it regrettable." He added that he had visited the United States in 2012 to conduct a Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee national audit, and that in 2014 he traveled to the US as a sitting lawmaker to meet members of both chambers of Congress — including Steve Chabot, then chairman of the Asia-Pacific subcommittee — to discuss Korean Peninsula issues. He also visited the home of Donald Gregg, a former US ambassador to South Korea.
Jung faced the same situation in October 2013, when he was serving his second term in the Assembly. Also assigned to the Americas group that year, he was again unable to obtain a US visa and had to join the Europe group instead; a lawmaker from the PPP's predecessor party, Kim Young-woo, was brought in as a replacement for the Americas team.
At the time, Jung issued a press release saying he had applied for a US visa on Oct. 1 as a member of the Americas group but had not received it by Oct. 11 — five days before his scheduled Oct. 16 departure. "I was told by the committee secretariat that the visa would likely not come through until after the audit period, so I had to switch urgently to the Europe group," he said. He also criticized both Washington and Seoul, saying the United States had shown an "unkind and overbearing attitude" in handling the visa, but that the bigger problem was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' "complacent and irresponsible posture," which he said had created the embarrassing situation. He also addressed speculation that his participation in a 1989 sit-in at the US Embassy might have been a factor, saying that if that were the issue, his visa should have been denied in 2012 as well.
kty@heraldcorp.com
