McCarthyism! Moon Jae-In’s government declares Christine Ahn persona non grata

Is it possible to be too far-left for Moon Jae-In? In the end, I suspect not, but still:

An American who helped arrange for 30 female peace activists to cross the heavily armed border between North and South Korea in 2015 has been denied entry to South Korea, officials confirmed on Monday.

Christine Ahn, a South Korean-born American citizen, said she did not know she was persona non grata in the country until Asiana Airlines stopped her from boarding a flight at the San Francisco airport on Thursday. She had planned to transit through Incheon International Airport outside Seoul on her way to China, where she intended to spend a week before visiting South Korea.

After being told she was not allowed to transit though South Korea, she bought a new ticket to fly directly to Shanghai, she said.

The Justice Ministry of South Korea said on Monday that Ms. Ahn had been denied entry because there were sufficient grounds to fear that she might “hurt the national interests and public safety” of South Korea.

Ms. Ahn said she suspected that the government of the former president Park Geun-hye, a conservative who was impeached over a corruption scandal and removed from office in March, had put her on a blacklist for helping organize the Women Cross DMZ campaign in May 2015. [NY Times]

Since the question has been raised by those who invent facts with the promiscuity of Larry Craig on a five-hour layover in Bangkok with a new pair of Salvatore Ferragamo oxfords, no, this decision had nothing to do with me, at least as far as I know. For that matter, I don’t know who in his right mind (and this may be the determinative premise) would ever suspect me of having any influence in Moon Jae-In’s administration.

But at least the South Korean government, unlike the New York Times, is willing to go beyond Ahn’s self-serving claims of “peace” activism to investigate her actual views. Her 2015 Women Cross DMZ march through Pyongyang and points south was arranged in collaboration with a North Korean diplomat. Stage-management of the event was then handed off to the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, which handed the participants very nearly the same banners used by the Korean Friendship Association and every other useful idiot who marches through Pyongyang. 

In the end, the trip was a case of life imitating parody — a public relations disaster whose nadir was the Rodong Sinmun’s quotation of Ahn as saying that Kim Il Sung had devoted his life to the liberation of the North Korean people, with Gloria Steinem and others left to deny the statement as Ahn ducked the press.

As I documented a dozen years ago when the shoe (ahem) was on the other foot, South Korea has a long-standing practice of excluding or expelling foreigners whose purpose for visiting is to engage in political activity. And while I’m admittedly sympathetic to Vollertsen’s views and unsympathetic to Ahn’s, I’m hard-pressed to say that any government is obligated to admit any alien to engage in political activity, regardless of his or her political views.

If my memory serves me, the South Korean government later relented and let Vollertsen back in. I expect the Moon administration will probably also relent when Ahn’s hard-left friends raise a ruckus. After all, I can’t objectively say that Ahn is any more extreme than Tim Shorrock, to whom President Moon granted one of his first interviews, and her contents don’t seem to be red-lining the pressure valve quite like a man so militant that in the end, not even Ralph Nader could stand him.

4 Responses

  1. UPDATE:

    The Moon administration has just lifted the entry ban on Christine Ahn. She will now be allowed to enter the ROK to a hero’s welcome to join her comrades in planned protests against US
    and ROK military bases. This reportedly comes over the objections of Moon’s national security people, who were no
    doubt concerned about Ahn’s collaboration with a North Korean intelligence agent whom she first met in the North in 2004 and continued her relationship with after he was posted to the North’s UN Mission in N.Y. in 2010. It was this North Korean operative
    who assisted and advised Ahn in the planning of the Women Cross
    DMZ cross border march in 2015. It seems that some of Ahn’s powerful friends and allies used all their influence to obtain the lifting of the ban. This may set a precedent for other overseas pro-North activists, including perhaps even hardcore ones, to be allowed to enter the ROK. Leaders of Chongryon in Japan, and Shin, Eun-mi of the US, for example, are lobbying (and having their allies in Seoul lobby) for the lifting of the bans imposed on them.
    US pro-North groups and activists are hailing the lifting of the ban
    on Ahn as a major victory.

  2. News Report That Christine Ahn Will Meet With ROK Foreign Minister Kang On Seoul Visit

    “Ahn was also slated for a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha.”

    It now appears that the Moon administration lifted the “denial of entry” on Ahn due to criticism from Gloria Steinem, ROK women’s groups allied with Ahn’s “Women Cross DMZ,” and the NEW YORK TIMES, rejecting the advice of the ROK’s intelligence service.

    This report fails to mention Ahn’s meetings, communications, and collaboration with a North Korean agent. This was probably the basis for the her being considered a threat to national security by some Korean intelligence officials, before they were overruled by
    someone much “higher up.”

    http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/803443.html

  3. Thanks for the update Lawrence. I appreciate it.

    I don’t know who Christine Ahn is or what she really stands for, but if she actually made statements lauding Kim Il Sung, and supports women rights, I have to tell her:

    1. Kim Il Sung is dead along with millions of innocent victims that he and his sons have killed,

    and

    2. there is NO women’s rights in fucking Pyongyang, let alone basic human rights for most of them…