Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
PPP stirs xenophobia as Seoul welcomes Chinese tourists visa-free
Rep. Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party speaks during a parliamentary interpellation session on education, society and culture at the National Assembly in Seoul, Sept. 18. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
Politicians claim gov't network outage will increase illegal stays
Members of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) are raising security and public safety concerns, as the Korean government on Monday began a visa-free entry program for Chinese tour groups.
They claim the country will be vulnerable to visa overstays and illegal employment of Chinese nationals, especially as major government data networks remain offline following Friday’s fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) facility in Daejeon.
Under the new policy, in place until June 30 next year, groups of three or more Chinese nationals are allowed to enter Korea without visas and stay for up to 15 days. Authorities are betting on the new influx of tourists, estimated to add around 1 million extra visitors, to provide a much-needed economic lifeline to the tourism and retail sectors.
Upon the launch of the program, Rep. Na Kyung-won of the main opposition party called for its postponement, citing the disruption to administrative services caused by the fire.
“Resident registration certificates cannot be issued, internal networks for civil servants are down and even mobile government ID cards are unusable. In this situation, the government cannot reliably verify the identities of even its own citizens,” Na wrote on social media.
“Allowing large numbers of Chinese tourists to enter without visas can only heighten public anxiety.”
Rep. Kim Min-soo, a Supreme Council member of the PPP, also voiced strong opposition to the visa-free policy, calling it “a dangerous gamble with public safety.”
Speaking at a party meeting in Incheon, he warned of possible crimes and the spread of infectious diseases, linking them to the influx of Chinese visitors. Kim cited risks of illegal employment, organized crime, drug trafficking and phone fraud, urging citizens to exercise caution.
He also raised the possibility of “cultural clashes” at tourist sites, advising people not to confront strangers directly but to report any incidents and record them instead.
Foreign tourists arrive at Incheon International Airport, Monday, the first day of Korea’s visa-free entry program for Chinese tour groups. Yonhap
Ruling party members responded sharply, accusing the PPP of scapegoating foreign nationals.
“Na singled out specific people as a source of insecurity. That is a textbook example of far-right politics rooted in xenophobia,” said Rep. Ko Min-jung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), adding that such rhetoric only fuels intolerance. “It is politicians like Na who sow fear among the public, not the tourists themselves.”
Na countered that raising concerns about security risks amid a system shutdown is not an act of extremism. She pointed to a past survey showing that more than 70 percent of residents on Jeju Island favored scrapping the southern resort island’s visa-free policy for Chinese visitors. “I wonder whether this view would also be dismissed as 'far-right,'” she said.
Regarding the controversy, the justice ministry said that the entry system is unaffected by the NIRS fire.
“Immigration screening is managed by a separate database under the ministry, so there is no disruption to border control,” the ministry said in a statement. Officials added that advance checks are being conducted to bar individuals with prior immigration violations from visa-free entry into the country.
However, Na rejected the ministry’s assurances as insufficient, saying that immigration screening at entry points addresses only part of the problem.
“The real question is whether the government can track and verify the identity of visitors throughout their stay — from entry and accommodation to employment and departure — when core domestic data systems are still not functioning,” she said.
Na added that in Jeju alone, more than 10,000 people had overstayed after entering under a visa-free program. “The government must restore full system functions and implement effective post-entry monitoring before introducing large-scale visa waivers,” she wrote.
The ministry reiterated that it will strengthen oversight, stating that pre-arrival checks would continue and that the policy was designed to operate “safely and smoothly.”