In South Korea, it’s unlawful to journey to harmful nations. Journalists say it’s making their work not possible | South Korea

Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, freelance photographer Jang Jinyoung crossed from Poland into Lviv and travelled on to Kyiv, the place he spent a fortnight documenting the conflict.

South Korea’s overseas ministry had designated Ukraine off-limits days earlier, making unauthorised visits a legal offence. He knew he was breaking the legislation however went anyway, as no Korean journalist had but reported from contained in the nation.

“Everything back home was being relayed through foreign outlets. I wanted to see it more directly for myself,” Jang informed the Guardian.

On his return he was positioned below legal investigation. After refusing to simply accept a abstract high quality, a court docket north-west of Seoul this month convicted him and fined him 5m received (US$3,600).

Many nations launch journey advisories for his or her residents, however South Korea is likely one of the few developed democracies that criminalises visits to blacklisted nations. On Friday, the nation’s most penalty for such an offence tripled – from a yr in jail or a 10m-won (US$7,200) high quality to a few years or a 30m received (US$21,700) high quality, on the court docket’s discretion.

The authorities says the system is critical to guard residents’ lives and security, however critics argue the restrictions transcend what’s required, and people with a real must journey, together with journalists and help staff, are being unfairly caught out by the legislation.

The overseas ministry says it grants 5,000 to six,000 exceptions a yr, together with about 50 to journalists. But permission is discretionary and determined case by case. In Jang’s case, the applying course of for Ukraine particularly had not opened when he departed for the nation.

His case has been condemned by home and worldwide press teams, and he’s interesting in opposition to his conviction and plans to problem the legislation on the constitutional court docket. He desires the allow system changed with one the place journalists merely notify the authorities of their plans.

“Permission is control, and control over what gets covered reaches into editorial territory. The ban is the biggest barrier there is for anyone trying to report what is really happening in a conflict.”

Aid staff and activists

The journey ban in its present type started in 2007, when 23 members of a South Korean church travelled to Afghanistan in opposition to authorities warnings and have been seized by the Taliban. Two have been shot useless, and the remaining 21 returned after Seoul negotiated straight with their captors.

Within weeks the federal government designated Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia as travel-ban areas, making unauthorised visits a criminal offense.

The present restrictions at the moment cowl 10 nations of their entirety, together with Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Haiti, with partial bans on a dozen extra, amongst them Myanmar and Gaza.

The resolution to impose stricter penalties adopted 2025 revelations that lots of of South Koreans had been lured to Cambodia by faux job adverts and held in compounds run by fraud syndicates. The areas banned by the federal government in Cambodia have been downgraded in July, after the ministry recorded a 94% fall in studies of Koreans being confined in opposition to their will.

But the legislation has entangled folks travelling for causes far faraway from the rip-off compounds, together with journalists, rights activists and help staff.

Data launched to the workplace of opposition lawmaker Kim Gunn exhibits the ministry reported 22 folks to police within the first seven months of this yr – greater than double the entire for 2025 and probably the most since 2020. Over the previous decade, it has reported 120 folks.

All however one in all this yr’s instances involved Europe, the place the journey ban covers all of Ukraine, together with stretches of Russia and Belarus on the Ukrainian border.

Earlier this month, police opened a legal investigation into six South Korean activists who had travelled to Kyiv to foyer in opposition to the pressured repatriation of two North Korean prisoners of conflict.

The legislation additionally permits the ministry to invalidate passports with none legal case. It used this in March in opposition to Kim Ahyun, a peace activist often known as Haecho, as she ready to hitch a Gaza help flotilla. On Thursday the Seoul administrative court docket rejected her problem. Unless it’s overturned, she can not journey overseas in any respect.

In an announcement, the overseas ministry mentioned that by limiting passport use, the legislation had performed an vital function in defending Korean lives over twenty years, and denied that it amounted to censorship.

“It is the minimum measure necessary to secure the lives and physical safety of citizens in dangerous areas”, it mentioned.

Jong-Chul Kim, a public curiosity lawyer who has been aiding Haecho, mentioned the system was disproportionate, punishing folks after they journey and stripping passports earlier than they go.

“The travel ban system, which has a strongly paternalistic character, not only infringes on individuals’ freedom to make their own choices regarding movement, but also seriously reduces the space for international civil society activities”, he mentioned.

Aid companies figuring out of South Korea face the identical restrictions and have lengthy pressed for abroad aid work to be recognised as a class in its personal proper, saying they can not get permission below the present system. A invoice to do this has sat earlier than parliament since 2024.

Jun Mo Lee, who runs the Korean workplace of the Irish help company Concern Worldwide, mentioned that with correct safety methods, threat assessments and pointers in place, there have been many nations the place humanitarian staff might safely be allowed to journey.

“What we need is not less protection, but a more practical and proportionate system that balances safety with humanitarian access,”Lee mentioned.