Crowds of travelers are seen on Oct. 7 at the departure gate of Terminal 1 at Incheon International Airport. (Yonhap News)

By Lee Kyoung Mi

Nationals of eight countries and regions including Japan from Nov. 1 can enter Korea without a visa.  

Lim Sookyoung, director-general of the infectious disease crisis response bureau of the Central Disease Control Headquarters, on Oct. 19 told a briefing, "Visa-free entry for nationals of eight countries including Japan that was temporarily suspended from March 2020 under the principle of reciprocity and to block the overseas inflow of COVID-19 will resume on Nov. 1." 

"People from all 91 countries and regions for which visa-free entry was suspended in March 2020 will again be allowed to enter without visas."

The eight countries are Japan, Taiwan, Macao and the five Pacific island countries of Kiribati, Micronesia, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tonga since they recently resumed visa-free entry for Koreans.

To block the spread of COVID-19, the Korean government on April 13, 2020, suspended visa-free entry for nationals of the 91 countries and regions that had done the same for Koreans. Japan was added to the list on March 9, 2020.

Afterwards, most of the 91 regained their visa-free privilege. For Japan, Taiwan and Macao, such entry was temporarily allowed from August through this month, but nationals from the five Pacific islands could not enter Korea without a visa.

Thus Korea will lift visa-free entry for all 91 countries and regions whose visa-free status was suspended. 

km137426@korea.kr