Busan is good

US senator urges visa waiver for Korea

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U.S. Senator Joseph Biden urged the George W. Bush administration on Monday (Nov. 21) to include Republic of Korea in the U.S. visa waiver program and reopen a consulate in Korea's second largest city of Busan.

Biden (Democrat-Delaware), a ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, issued a press release welcoming Bush's taking interest in including Korea in the visa waiver program.

``Republic of Korea is a strong ally, and we should ensure that Korean visitors in our country enjoy the same privileges shared by the citizens of 27 other responsible nations, including Japan,' he said in the release.

He also called on the Bush administration to reopen the consulate in Busan which was closed in 1996, noting that China, which already operates a consulate in the largest port city of the Republic of Korea, plans to open another consulate in Republic of Korea.

The visa problem has been one of the major issues between Seoul and Washington in the past several years as Republic of Korea saw an increasing number of people traveling to the U.S. for various purposes such as business and education.

The Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has made constant efforts to guide and educate U.S.-bound travelers to bring the visa refusal rate below 3 percent, a threshold needed before entry into the U.S. visa waiver program.

In last week's summit in Gyeongju ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Busan, President Roh Moo-hyun made a special request to Bush and the U.S. president instructed his aides to consider the visa exemption for Koreans.

``This is an incredibly valuable relationship, but there is room to strengthen it,' said the senator, who is one of the viable presidential candidates from the Democratic Party. He sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last Thursday with the same recommendations.

He expected the visa waiver program could revitalize the alliance between the Republic of Korea  and the U.S.
 
The source of news : Korea.net November 22, 2005