hankyoreh

which they refused to sign.

The Ministry of Justice’s decision to deny two foreign nationals entry to South Korea to protest the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system is creating controversy. The Ministry said that Immigration Control Act states that “Persons deemed highly likely to commit any act detrimental to the interest of the Republic of Korea or public safety” can be prevented from entering, but the move is being criticized as an act of political suppression.

The Ministry of Justice’s Korea Immigration Service said on July 26 that US nationals Juyeon Rhee and Hyun Lee were denied entry at Incheon International Airport on July 25. Hyun Lee is director of a group called Solidarity Committee for Democracy and Peace in Korea and Juyeon Rhee is a peace activist. The two were scheduled to participate in the annual Jeju Peace March on Aug. 15, where they planned to make a presentation opposing the US and South Korea’s decision to deploy THAAD.

After being denied entry, they stay for some time in a transfer area at Incheon Airport for 27 hours before their scheduled forced departure.

Tim Shorrock, an American journalist who exposed the US government’s suppressing of the Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980, posted a statement announcing the news on Facebook, in a post that said, “The two activists had traveled to South Korea numerous times in the past with no problems. They have never broken any laws in South Korea and had never been denied entry nor deported in the past. The denial of their entry can only be seen as an attempt by the Park Geun-hye administration to block peace activists from internationalizing the growing opposition in South Korea against THAAD deployment.”

The notices of refusal issued to Hyun Lee and Juyeon Rhee at Incheon International Airport

Article 11 of the Immigration Control Act, which states “Persons deemed highly likely to commit any act detrimental to the interest of the Republic of Korea or public safety”, can be used by the Minister of Justice to prevent entry to South Korea. But the Ministry has been criticized for applying this provision capriciously for political suppression.

In 2012, the Ministry denied entry to activists from Greenpeace who were protesting the construction of a naval base in Gangjeong Village, Jeju Island and nuclear power plants, and in May denied entry to Lee Jong-hyeon, a German national of Korean descent who traveled to South Korea to participate in an event to mark the anniversary of the Gwangju Democratization Movement.

Before leaving the airport, Hyun Lee sent out a text message saying, “I’d wanted to visit the struggle against THAAD in Seongju, go to the Wednesday comfort women protest outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, Gangjeong Village in Jeju Island, and there were a lot of people I wanted to meet, so this is sad and unfair.”

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