MINBYUN calls for disclosure about KORUS FTA visas
The Hankyoreh, Korea
MINBYUN calls for disclosure about KORUS FTA visas
The organization says MOFAT backtracked on previously announced visas as part of KORUS FTA negotiations
16 May 2011
By Jung Eun-joo
South Korean civic organization MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society filed an administrative lawsuit against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) on May 15, demanding that the ministry make public a letter on professional worker visa quotas that former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Kim Hyun-chong is said to have received from the U.S. administration. This will lead to legal clarification of the truth regarding the controversy over the South Korean government’s changed words about U.S. professional working visas.
The U.S. completely abolished limits on the number of visas issued to professional workers when concluding its FTA with Canada, and promised more than 5,000 such visas each to Mexico and Singapore, but showed reluctance to do the same during negotiations with South Korea for the South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), saying that this was a matter to be decided by Congress.
Kim stated that he obtained a letter on professional visa quotas after threatening to not attend the official FTA signing ceremony. Former KORUS FTA chief negotiator Kim Jong-hoon (now trade minister) also declared openly to Korean correspondents in Washington that although Australia had received 15,000 professional worker visas 10 months after concluding an FTA with the U.S., Korea would receive a higher number.
Since then, however, MOFAT has completely changed its story. In materials sent to Democratic Party Lawmaker Park Joo-sun last November, MOFAT stated that there was no such thing as a separate professional working visa quota for South Korea alone. The materials also deflected responsibility onto the US Congress, saying that as immigration came under the jurisdiction of Congress, no FTA concluded by US administrations since 2003 had involved visa quotas.
When MINBYUN demanded in March this year that Kim make public the letter on professional visa quotas that he had mentioned in a book, MOFAT refused, saying, “That is not information that was acquired as part of [Kim’s] official duty and it is not kept by us.” Ultimately, the full story of the broken promises made by the two states on professional working visas, and its breaking, will have to be revealed by way of a legal battle.
