Ministry of Justice Refuses to Disclose Han Dong-hoon's US Travel Expenses... "Exempt from Disclosure Due to Diplomatic Schedule" (Comprehensive)

Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon is attending the Cabinet meeting held at the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 16th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Ministry of Justice rejected a request for information disclosure from a civic group leader demanding the details of Minister Han Dong-hoon's business trip expenses to the United States, citing "concerns about harming national interests."

Ha Seung-soo, head of the Public Interest Law Center Nongbon, revealed on the 23rd that he filed an information disclosure request with the Ministry of Justice to release the execution details and expenditure proof documents of Minister Han's approximately 48 million won US business trip expenses but received a non-disclosure notice the day before.

In the notification, the Ministry of Justice stated, "The execution details of this business trip expense fall under matters concerning national security and diplomatic relations pursuant to Article 9, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 2 of the Act on Disclosure of Information by Public Agencies. Disclosure may significantly harm the vital interests of the state; therefore, it will not be disclosed."

A Ministry of Justice official explained, "Since the US trip is fundamentally a diplomatic schedule, it is subject to non-disclosure, and during the previous administration, information disclosure requests regarding ministerial trip expenses were also denied for the same reasons."

Ha posted this notification on his social networking service (SNS), protesting, "How is it a secret how much was spent on plane tickets, where and how much was spent on meals, and which hotel was paid for and stayed at?" He added, "If it is transparent, why can't it be disclosed?"

Minister Han traveled to the United States from June 29 to July 7. He met with officials from the World Bank, the United Nations, the US Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to discuss ways to build cooperation and collaboration between Korean and US judicial institutions. Some have raised suspicions about the trip's schedule being too loose, noting that there were no scheduled activities for three of the nine days during the trip.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.