2 Vietnamese Visa Applicants Had AIDS

Two out of 532 Vietnamese women who underwent mandatory marriage visa medical checkups from June 2005 to December 2005 were denied visas because they were discovered to be AIDS carriers, according to a report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The ministry reported, “The Korean Embassy in Vietnam asked local women applying for marriage visas to marry a Korean to submit medical examination results from hospitals designated by the embassy starting last June. A total of 69 were found to be afflicted with medical problems and were denied visas.”

Some of these women may have been intimate with their Korean husbands to-be before they took their medical examinations.

The Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Health and Welfare held a meeting last month to prepare for the possibility of AIDS spreading in Korea, and are in the process of coming up with specific countermeasures as soon as possible.

Jong-Koo Yoon jkmas@donga.com