Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Court rules in favor of change in English on passport
By Lee Hyo-sik
A court ruled Wednesday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade should reissue a passport to an individual who wants to change the English spelling of their name.
The Seoul Administrative Court said the ministry’s refusal to renew the passport with a different English spelling of the name was unlawful.
“The ministry said it did nothing wrong in refusing to reissue the passport, citing a range of restrictions on the reissuance. But when the individual’s passport expires, it is not subject to such regulations,” it said.
It then said the ministry enforces a wide array of restrictions toward the reissuance of a passport to prevent misuse. “But when an individual needs to renew his or her passport after it expires, their application should not be rejected just because they seek to change the spelling of the name in English,” the court said, stressing it constitutes a violation of one’s human rights.
When the passport expired in June last year, a Korean national applied for reissuance, requesting a change in the English spelling to “Yeon” from “Youn.”
But the foreign ministry turned down the request, arguing changes to ones’ English name are strictly controlled under the law.
The individual then filed a complaint with the court, claiming the ministry’s denial to reissue a passport for changes to the spelling of an English name violates the law because there was no possibility of its misuse.