U.S. extends visa waiver program for S. Korea

The United States has extended a visa waiver program for South Korea for another two years, a Seoul official said Thursday, allowing Korean citizens to continue to travel to the U.S. without needing to obtain a visa until March 2015.

In 2008, South Korea joined the U.S. visa waiver program that enables Korean citizens to stay in the U.S. for up to 90 days without a visa. It was the second time that the U.S. extended the program for South Korea.

“The U.S. government notified our government through the U.S. Embassy in Seoul that the visa waiver program for our nationals had been extended for two years up to March 2015," foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young told reporters.

The extension was made after a U.S. fact-finding delegation visited South Korea last September and looked into Korea's counter-terrorism measures as well as its management of immigration affairs and passport system, Cho said. (Yonhap News)