Saturday, April 05, 2008

South Korea Added to U.S. Visa Waiver Program

If you are South Korean and looking to visit the U.S. for a vacation you may want to hold your plans until Later 2008.
Story
According to the Korea Times: "
South Koreans will be able to visit the United States for up to three months visa-free beginning December." In a meeting late last month with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said that The US and South Korea: "agreed to expedite the process of Korea's participation in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program to promote people-to-people exchange and mutual understanding between our two countries."
Perhaps this is a foreshadowing of good things to come between the nations who have seen relations grow tense during the Bush 2/ Roh administrations. It certainly looks like a positive step in the right direction
. According to the Korea TImes piece, Secretary Michael Chertoff will sign a memorandum of understanding during President Lee Myung-bak's U.S. visit later this month.

1 comment:

Courtney said...

I am so happy that South Korea will finally be added to the visa waiver program. My high school had a sister school in Ansan, South Korea. Every other year a group from our school would go to their school to visit for one week. A group from their school was supposed to visit our school during the other year, but for 7 years in a row, they were denied visas. They finally gave up trying to visit our school. The whole concept of having a sister school was defeated because of that problem.