Seoul High Court sides with Steve Yoo in visa battle

The Seoul High Court on Thursday ruled that a consulate general’s rejection of Steve Yoo’s visa application was illegal. The court overturned the previous decision and ruled in favor of Yoo, who filed a round-two administrative litigation against...

Steve Yoo [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The Seoul High Court on Thursday ruled that a consulate general’s rejection of Steve Yoo’s visa application was illegal.

The court overturned the previous decision and ruled in favor of Yoo, who filed a round-two administrative litigation against the Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles for denying his visa application.

Yoo, a former pop star whose Korean name is Yoo Seung-jun, renounced his Korean citizenship and became a U.S. citizen in 2002 to allegedly evade his military duty.

Korea’s Ministry of Justice imposed an entry ban on Yoo later that year.

Yoo had initially applied for a visa in 2015 for overseas Koreans to return to the country, but the consulate general in Los Angeles refused to issue the visa, citing the Justice Ministry’s ban.

Yoo filed his first administrative case against the overseas agency, and the Korean Supreme Court ruled in his favor in 2020, ruling that the visa ban was illegal in procedure because the consulate general did not put its discretion to use.

When the consulate general rejected Yoo’s visa application yet again in 2020, he began his second round of legal disputes with the diplomatic authorities, arguing that the visa rejection goes against the Supreme Court’s ruling.

A lower court in April last year ruled that the highest court’s decision was only related to the issuing process, and did not mean Yoo was entitled to a visa.

Yoo appealed the case to the Seoul High Court, the hearings for which began in September.

The Foreign Ministry in Seoul said Thursday that it will hold further consultations with the Justice Ministry and other government agencies "for follow-up legal procedures" on Yoo's case.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]