PPP slams Jin Seong-jun visa delay as 'unprecedented diplomatic embarrassment'

The People Power Party on Saturday criticized the belated issuance of a US visa to Jin Seong-jun, chair of the National Assembly's National Defense Committee, calling it a sign of damaged trust in the South Korea-US alliance.

Park Sung-hoon, the PPP's chief spokesperson, said in a statement that day that it was "an unprecedented diplomatic embarrassment and a national disaster" that the chair of South Korea's National Assembly defense committee had been required by ally the United States to submit an English translation of a past National Security Act conviction and a criminal record certificate before receiving entry approval.

Park added that Jin "should not be calling the belated visa issuance fortunate and talking about 'alliance development'" and said Jin should apologize to the public for undermining the standing of the defense committee chair and damaging trust in the South Korea-US alliance.

"Now that the visa has come through, Jin will board a flight to Hawaii as if nothing happened, but the bitter reality of a 'creaking alliance' that this episode has laid bare cannot simply be erased," Park added.

Meanwhile, the PPP also pressed ahead with criticism over the National Election Commission special prosecutor's handling of ballot preservation measures following a public verification of ballots, arguing that procedural legitimacy had been lacking and that all ballots — including those not subject to objections — should have been thoroughly preserved from the outset.