[Anchor]

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has addressed the recent visa issuance rejections and delays for some Democratic lawmakers, suggesting that past actions by certain lawmakers from decades ago played a role.

Reporting from Washington by correspondent Lee Hanseok.

[Reporter]

Following the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio directly addressed the controversy surrounding the rejected and delayed visas for South Korean lawmakers.

He stated that the matter is tied to the past actions of specific individuals from decades ago.

[Marco Rubio / US Secretary of State: I think there was perhaps an issue regarding the conduct of a specific visa holder about 20 years ago.]

This remark hinted that the past National Security Act violation record of Jin Sung-joon, Chairperson of the National Assembly's National Defense Committee—who was sentenced to three years in prison and three years of suspended qualifications in 1991—was reflected in the screening process.

Chairperson Jin Sung-joon applied for a US visitor visa to visit the US Indo-Pacific Command on behalf of the National Assembly's National Defense Committee, but the controversy arose after the US side refused to issue the visa on October 28.

Previously, Representative Chung Chung-rae, a former leader of the Democratic Party, also had to urgently change his travel destination due to a delayed visa issuance while attempting to visit the United States last month for a parliamentary audit of the South Korean Embassy in the US.

Regarding concerns that the successive visa issuance controversies involving South Korean ruling party lawmakers could strain ROK-US relations, Secretary Rubio stated that the issue would be resolved through official channels between the two countries rather than at a press conference.

(Video by: Park Eun-ha | Video Editing by: Kim Ho-jin)