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Seoul court rejects activist's request to halt gov't order requiring passport return

Published: 04 Apr. 2026, 15:00 Updated: 05 Apr. 2026, 17:48

Lawyers for a Democratic Society, also known as Minbyun, holds a press conference on April 1 regarding an injunction request against the government’s order requiring a Korean activist who attempted to enter the Gaza Strip last October to return her passport. [YONHAP]

A Seoul court rejected a Korean activist’s request to halt a government order requiring her to return her passport as she sought to join a humanitarian flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip.

According to legal sources on Saturday, the Seoul Administrative Court had rejected the request a day earlier. The case had been brought by Kim Ah-hyun, who also goes by the activist name Haecho, after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered her to return her passport over safety concerns.

The court said it was difficult to conclude that the ministry’s action would cause irreparable harm or that there was an urgent need to suspend it. It added that granting the request could instead have a significant impact on the public interest.

Kim previously attempted to enter Gaza aboard a ship with other humanitarian activists in October last year, when she was detained by Israeli forces and held in a local prison before being released two days later.

In January, she told local media she intended to take part in another aid mission with fellow Korean activists. The Foreign Ministry subsequently issued an order requiring her to return her passport, citing safety risks. The order was formally delivered to her on March 27.

But Kim had already left for a third country in mid-March, before the order was issued, after granting legal authority to Lawyers for a Democratic Society, a progressive legal advocacy group known as Minbyun, to act on her behalf.

Separately from the injunction request, Minbyun has filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to overturn the ministry’s passport surrender order.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KO SEUNG-PYO [[email protected]]