A passport is a kind of official document that proves the identity of the holder, such as nationality.

(Refer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs passport information website) There are three types of passports.

Regular passports, diplomatic passports, and official passports.

Among the photos below, the middle one is an official passport issued as an e-passport.



Enlarging an image

When Shin Mo, the spouse of Lee Won-mo, the HR secretary in the presidential office, accompanied President Yoon Seok-yeol to Spain to attend the NATO summit, he had an official passport.

It is said that she almost got hired in the presidential office, but Shin is not a civil servant anyway.

How could he, as a civilian, have an official passport?

Article 7 of the Enforcement Decree of the Passport Act is proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an answer to this question.

Let's move on to Section 7.

Where does Mr. Shin fit into these? Let's choose the answer.


[Chapter 3 Official Passport of the Enforcement Decree of the Passport Act]



1. A person who travels abroad for official business as a person who falls under each of the following items, his/her spouse recommended by the relevant institution, unmarried children under the age of 27, and parents


with no living capacity

.

civil servant


i.

Persons recognized by the Minister of Foreign Affairs as necessary to possess an official passport among executives and employees of the


Bank of Korea and public institutions under the Act on the Management of Public Institutions Persons who are recognized by the Minister of Foreign Affairs as the necessity of holding official passports from among the expatriates of public institutions under the following regulations, their spouses and unmarried children under the age of


27 and their spouses and unmarried children under the

age


of 27; Persons accompanied by other national and local public officials working at diplomatic missions abroad

to


receive housekeeping assistance pursuant to Article 31 of the Foreign Officials Act


person who does


The answer is six.



In other words, it is explained that Mr. Shin is a person who "was specifically required to possess an official passport for the smooth performance of his official duties."

If we paraphrase the phrase again, it can be said that Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin acknowledged this necessity.

A question mark may remain, but let's say we accept this explanation.

Now, inevitably, the following question follows.

What role did Mr. Shin play for 'smooth performance of official duties'?



According to the Enforcement Decree, the validity of the official passport is 5 years.

However, in the case of an official passport issued for 'smooth performance of official duties', the validity period is said to be two years.

It can be as long as three years if the Minister of Foreign Affairs deems it necessary.

How the official passports of those who have performed normal tour events are disposed of will depend on individual circumstances.

Those who will continue to do related work do not return them separately, but keep them, but if it is a one-time thing, they will return it after the event.

Shin's official passport is now reported to have been returned.

It is not known how old Shin's official passport was.



It seems unlikely that the President's office will be happy as only Mr. Shin's training is receiving attention, not NATO's 'performance'.

When former Blue House protocol secretary Tak Hyun-min criticized it as a 'private practice', he blatantly expressed his displeasure, saying, "I will not comment on Mr. Tak's remarks."

It is true that Mr. Shin is a civilian, but it seems that he recognized it as an unfair frame as he went through the process and accompanied him as a 'guitar attendant'.



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that for convenience, the attendants of normal events have been divided into main attendants/special attendants/practitioner attendants, etc.

He added that other attendants talked about by the presidential office are included in the working-level attendants.

Those who have been named as other attendants in the past are interpreters and attending physicians.

Most would agree that the interpreter and the attending physician played a role in 'smooth performance of official duties'.

However, it is not known from the information that has been revealed so far whether Mr. Shin played such a role.

There is no legal basis or bylaws to classify the types of attendants.

This is Lee Hyun-ryeong and Bi-hyeon-ryeong.

That's why it's not clear to hear the complaint that he was a guitar attendant.

Controversy will inevitably continue.

The schedule of the NATO summit, which was the stage for President Yun Seok-yeol's debut in multilateral diplomacy.

Instead of a field of diplomatic discourse, which should be fiercely contested, the result was a set shot and controversy over civilian performance.