The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Monday that consultations on South Korea joining the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP) with the United States were on schedule with the goal of concluding them by the year-end.
Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young denied a newspaper report that the VWP for South Koreans would likely be delayed due to differences between the two countries over ways of sharing the criminal records of tourists.
. . .
Some South Korean lawyers claim that sharing the criminal records of citizens is in violation of basic human rights, while Washington insists it is one of the basic standards to be met by those countries wanting to join the VWP to help protect American nationals and interests from terrorists or criminals who have committed felonies.
HT to ROK Drop on this one. To use South Korea's Ministry of Justice's words:
I just don’t understand why they cannot make some exceptions to accommodate the needs of their own nationals. In Korea, criminal records can be easily obtained online. But they don’t have a centralized system.
Actually, that was arrogantly said in relation to foreign embassies' hesitation to provide criminal histories to comply with new E-2 visa regulations. South Korea implemented those new rules in 2007 without checking first with whether other countries would be willing or able to follow them. South Korea was quite keen on this idea, and immigration put out a release saying in part:
The Korean Government will prevent illegal activities by verifying requirements of native English teacher and tighten their non-immigrant status [...] [and will] eradicate illegal activities of native English teachers who are causing social problems such as ineligible lectures, taking drugs and sex crimes. English teachers, who disturb social order during their staying in Korea such as illegal teaching, taking drugs and sex crimes, will be banned from entering South Korea.[...] [They will] prevent illegal English teaching activities and the taking of drugs and sexual harassment of English teachers, [...] teachers who disrupt the social order by taking drugs, committing sexual harassment and alcohol intoxication.
Perhaps the U.S. should do the same in kind. After all there are roughly 230,000 Koreans staying in the U.S. illegally, and I'll bet they're not raising unicorns and kissing babies.
And for the record I'm not oppossed to teachers having to submit criminal background checks, as a country has the right to allow or bar whomever it pleases, and set its visa regulations any way it sees fit. Thus, it's not unreasonable in the least for the United States to ask for passengers' criminal histories. If I understand it correctly, a criminal offense doesn't bar one from entering the country, but it does exclude one from entering visa-free under the VWP. My gut reaction is to say no to a VWP with South Korea, because wasn't it contingent on the KORUS FTA, an agreement squashed with apparent impunity? But, that's not what developed nations do, how grown-ups behave, and my temper is one reason among many why I'm not a diplomat. Hey, maybe the VWP will mean I can stay in South Korea visa-free for longer than 30 days jaf9wj93owejfjflasf23faa0o.
11 comments:
"ineligible lectures, taking drugs and sex crimes"
remember the old game, "one of these things is not like the others!"
that's kind of like "lions and tigers and moldy bread"
OH MY!
Flabberfuckingasting....
Let's not forget the AIDS and Drug Tests.
South Korea - Land of the Morning Hypocriticals...
Maybe I am wrong but it seems to me that there is a difference between certain workers getting a background check for a certain kind of job and having the general population have their entire records on a chip in their passports. So, seems to me the issue is the criminal record on the "chip," but I cannot be sure if THAT is the problem Korean lawyers have. I can't understand anything a Korean journalist writes.
And more importantly, man, the Steelers sucked.
Oh! The Irony
A few weeks ago, I was complaining about having to fill out that stupid form for the Education Office files (AGAIN ~ by the way, I didn't, figuring that 5 times on the same form was more than enough), and had a mini-rant about the whole E2 process at the same time.
My head teacher said, "But it is same for Korean who goes to USA" (even though I'm Canadian... nevermind).
And I looked at her and said, "Are you sure about that?" and walked away.
This post has made me both supremely pissed off, discouraged and also elated that yes, I do have a reason to rant about the E2 process to everyone within shouting distance! Woooo....
Yeah, I had to fill that form out, too, and was a little irked. "They update their files every year," my coteacher said . . . but it's not like any of my information has changed. All they have to do is write down where I work, since it changed 14 months ago. No, by the way, I didn't write down my high school. I always get the little guilt trip about not having a TEFL certification or a B.Ed. "Do you have any qualifications for teaching?" my coteacher asks, despite having said "no" on the paper and having said "no" on the paper the past three years. "No," I say. "So you don't have any special qualifications for teaching?" she repeats? I wanted to reply "Well, I can pronounc 'th,' how about you?" but couldn't.
Koreans do indeed have a difficult time trying to get into the US. It's hard to get a visa, a green card, etc. It doesn't help that so many Koreans go there illegally, overstay their visas, and abuse the system in other ways. So, I *guess* I'm a little sympathetic to their plight. When they're not seiging the embassy to complain about hamburgers they're wrapped around it trying to vacation, study abroad, or drop their anchor babies. asjf9q234j890jr3.
But, that doesn't mean I can't get pissed off when they ask me for my degree time and time again, or when they can't keep a god damned file.
That will change in a few weeks, though, the bit about not having a certification. I've finished 17 of 19 units, and after those two, the final, and a paper, I'll no longer have to look up at the long end of a nose all the time.
This article was the feature topic for my ajumma class this morning. I really enjoy this class and love my students who are all very articulate, reasonably well-traveled, intelligent women with exceptional English speaking skills.
Though, I inevitably had to bite my tongue on several occasions at some of the sheer ignorance and hypocrisy coming out of them. I mentioned that (most of) us foreigners don't really take exception to the criminal check as it's required in our home countries for any job dealing with children, have some issues with the medical check but appreciate that foreign nationals usually must do the same in order to gain a working Visa into our home countries. The main exception we have is having to show our Gawd darn documents every fuckin six months as the nimrods at Immi seemingly don't know how to file ... They were silent after that. hehe
Ben what ignorant things did they say?
hi Brian,
It was mainly to do with semantics. We all know about the Christopher Neil case and that no doubt there have been quite a few sketchy foreigners who have entered Korea and ultimately worked in Korea.
Though, some of my students seemed to believe that these criminal checks were needed as 'many' (their words not mine) foreigners who were coming to Korea were either unqualified, had a criminal history {implying also a sex criminal history}, and were on drugs. I guess I can't blame them too much as they're fed this crap by their media to a large extent. One bad egg in the foreign community will be widely reported with their act and identity revealed, followed by a whole lot of hand-wringing about what to do about these lecherous, criminal, dirty foreigners.
Whereas, thousands of similar acts occur daily involving locals with relative anonymity and little correspondence until a major scandal or shocking crime occurs, when the populace finally decides enough's enough.
And they wonder why FDI is down in this country ...
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