Cho Hyun denies claims that NIS chief Lee Jong-seok was denied entry to the US
Independent Rep. Han Dong-hoon claimed at the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee's audit of the Foreign Ministry on the 6th that National Intelligence Service Director Lee Jong-seok was denied entry to the United States around March this year, but Foreign Minister Cho Hyun denied it, saying, "Not at all." The audit also saw continued questioning and exchanges over allegations that Director Lee was denied entry to the US. Responding to Rep. Han's claims, Minister Cho said, "Not to my knowledge." He denied claims that US authorities had raised the issue of pro-North Korean leanings with Lee's side in writing, saying, "Not at all. I clearly stated it is not the case because I heard an explanation about whether there were any issues in the intelligence field during the Korea-US foreign ministers' meeting." He added, however, that he could not answer questions about specific intelligence matters.
People Power Party Rep. Kim Dae-sik also asked, "Was the director's visa to the US rejected or not?" Minister Cho initially answered, "I don't know, and I believe that is not the case," but when pressed to "drop the diplomatic language and just say whether he went or not," he replied, "I am confident in saying there is no way Director Lee's visa was rejected." Asked about reports that an attempt to send an NIS official as a diplomat stationed in Washington was not approved by the US government, Cho said, "There seems to be some technical issue I am not aware of." In response to a Yonhap News inquiry, the NIS said of Rep. Han's claims, "No such thing happened." The claim that the NIS director was denied entry was, for now, put to rest with official denials from the agencies concerned—the NIS and the Foreign Ministry.
The questioning also sparked exchanges between Minister Cho and lawmakers. When Rep. Han Dong-hoon said, "Your expression is very different when you look over there versus when you look this way," Minister Cho shot back, "How am I supposed to put on a better expression?" As the questioning continued, Cho looked toward Song Seok-jun, the People Power Party chairman of the committee, and said, "I'm going to call for SOS," to which Chairman Song replied, "Let's all try to make sure no one has to call for SOS like this," wrapping up the session.
