Court backs alternative spellings in passport romanization dispute

Travelers wait in line at the departure hall of Terminal 1 at Incheon International Airport, Thursday. Yonhap.

A Korean court has ruled that authorities were wrong to deny a passport spelling request simply because it did not conform to the government’s romanization guidelines, saying the policy is not legally binding.

According to legal sources on Monday, Judge Kang Jae-won of the Seoul Administrative Court recently sided with the parents of a five-year-old girl, identified as A, who filed a lawsuit against the foreign minister after being denied the right to use “TA” as the English spelling of the syllable “태” in her passport, which is romanized as "tae" in the 2000 Revised Romanization system used by the Korean government.

The court ruled that “it is difficult to find that there is a superior or overriding public interest in denying the change that would outweigh the disadvantages A may suffer.”

In 2023, the girl’s parents applied for her passport with the English name spelling “TA.” However, the local government office issued the passport with “TAE” instead, citing a violation of the national romanization system. When the parents requested a correction, they were again denied on the same grounds.

The core issue in the lawsuit was whether the government’s romanization guidelines carry binding legal force. Current regulations state that passport names should follow romanization rules based on pronunciation, but they also allow the use of foreign-style names if the romanization and the foreign name match.

The court ruled that the parents should be allowed to use “TA,” noting that such spellings are found in foreign names, and that restricting changes based solely on the romanization rules goes beyond the original intent, which is to prevent fraud or criminal misuse.

It also cited a Supreme Court precedent recognizing the right to determine one’s passport name as part of the constitutional right to pursue happiness.

“The young plaintiff cannot be forced to endure social inconvenience, confusion or emotional stress throughout her development simply because of the English spelling of her name,” the court said. “This decision lacks justifiable grounds and violates the principle of proportionality, making it unlawful.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.