By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
An abrupt blackout at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul stopped work there, including visa service, Wednesday.
The sudden closure caused grievance among Koreans who were there.
``We were told it was a pure technical problem within the embassy building in Sejong-no that caused the blackout,'' Kim Jeong-nim, an embassy spokeswoman said over the phone. "We expect operations to resume tomorrow (Thursday)."
Repair was underway throughout the day.
The U.S. Embassy has two locations in Seoul, the chancery in Sejong-no and the public relations office in Namyoung-dong. The Namyoung-dong office wasn't affected.
The spokeswoman apologized to those waiting outside the embassy building.
A woman from Miryang in South Gyeongsang Province was quoted by the Yonhap News Agency as saying that she had been embarrassed and frustrated by the unanticipated closure ahead of her imminent trip to the United States.
As one of the busiest U.S. embassies in the world in terms of number of visas issued, the embassy sees long human lines spiraling around the embassy building, a Seoul spectacle.
The line is expected to get shorter as early as this fall, as South Korea and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding on the visa waiver program (VWP) during President Lee Myung-bak's visit to the United States last week.
Over 360,000 Koreans applied for U.S. visas in 2006, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Under the VWP, Koreans planning to travel to the United States would be required to hold electronic passports (e-passport) storing biometric identifiers.
The government has issued e-passports to government employees and diplomats, and civilians are expected to get the new passports by September.