The U.S. State Department has now issued its 2023 Action
Report on International Child Abduction.
The Republic of Korea has been declared by the State Department to be non-compliant with the Hague Abduction Convention.
The State Department has reported to
Congress that within the past year it has taken the following actions in this
regard against the Republic of Korea:
·
Department officials in Washington, DC, and at
the U.S. Embassy in Seoul continued to raise concerns about the ROK’s failure
to enforce Convention return orders. In October 2022, the Department’s Office
of Children’s Issues met with the ROK Embassy in Washington, DC, to urge
compliance with the Convention.
·
In December 2022, the Special Advisor for
Children’s Issues met with various ROK government officials in Seoul, including
MFA, Ministry of Justice, and Supreme Court representatives, to discuss the
country’s pattern of noncompliance with the Convention and to offer assistance
to improve compliance.
·
In January 2023, the U.S. Ambassador to ROK and
Consul General met with the Minister of Justice in Seoul and urged prompt
resolution of outstanding child abduction cases.
·
In February 2023, the Assistant Secretary of
State for Consular Affairs met with senior MFA officials in Seoul to express
concerns regarding the ROK’s failure to resolve outstanding child abduction
cases under the Convention.
·
In February 2023, the Special Advisor for
Children's Issues wrote an editorial article for a popular Korean newspaper.
The article urged the resolution of child abduction cases. In March 2023, the
Special Advisor for Children’s Issues raised the country’s pattern of noncompliance
with ROK Embassy officials in Washington, DC, and offered assistance to improve
compliance.
·
In April 2023, officials from the Department’s
Bureaus of Consular Affairs and East Asia and the Pacific met with a senior
advisor to the ROK President in Washington, DC, to discuss the pattern of
noncompliance with the Convention and offer any necessary assistance to improve
compliance. Also in April, the Special Advisor for Children’s Issues met with
the ROK Counselor for Legal Affairs in Washington, DC, to discuss ROK’s
formation of a task force to address challenges with child abduction cases.
·
In May 2023, the Office of the Spokesperson
released a media note to announce the release of the 2023 Annual Report on
International Child Abduction and listed ROK as a country cited for
demonstrating a pattern of noncompliance.
·
In May 2023, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the
U.S. Embassy in Seoul delivered a demarche to the Deputy Minister for Overseas
Koreans and Consular Affairs at the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)
regarding the country’s noncompliance and requesting information on plans to
improve the enforcement of Convention return orders.
Jeremy D. Morley
has provided expert evidence to courts in several U.S. states on such matters
concerning the Republic of Korea.