Former Trump administration diplomat Morse H. Tan was unable to attend his 103-year-old grandmother’s funeral in the United States last week because of a South Korean exit ban that has kept him in the country for more than four months as he awaits trial on a defamation charge.
The Seoul Administrative Court on Oct. 8 denied Tan’s request to temporarily lift the travel restriction so he could return home for the funeral, citing public-interest concerns while his criminal case remains pending, according to Korean outlet NewsDaily.
Tan, who served as U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice under President Donald Trump from 2019 to 2021, is scheduled to appear Friday for his first trial hearing on allegations that he defamed South Korean President Lee Jae Myung while speaking in the United States last year.
South Korean authorities have imposed successive travel restrictions on Tan since he arrived in the country in late May to observe local elections amid claims of election irregularities and Chinese interference. He was indicted without detention in July after authorities reopened an investigation into comments he made about Lee during a June 2025 event on Korean election integrity at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Tan became emotional while speaking earlier this month at Unjeong Chamjon Church in Paju, South Korea, where he paid tribute to his grandmother and recalled her Christian faith and years of prayer for her family.
“My grandmother would pray for every member of the family, down to the great-grandchildren, every single day,” he said in the speech, which was uploaded to the church’s YouTube channel on Oct. 5.
“She wrote out the entire Bible by hand a bunch of times. She prayed so much, I don't even know all the things she prayed for me. And now, because she is in Heaven, she knows all the impact, I believe, that her prayers have had.”
“I was supposed to be at the funeral. I really wanted to be there to honor her. I was going to deliver a eulogy celebrating her life, but since I couldn't do that there in the United States, I'm trying to do that a bit here.”
During the travel ban, Tan has continued speaking at churches across South Korea and has remained a vocal critic of the government. In his August interview with CP, he described South Korea as “a rising dictatorship” and alleged that the country was becoming increasingly communist in its methods, hostile toward Christianity and subject to “massive infiltration by Chinese Communist Party and North Korean spies, operatives and agents flooding the country.”
Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback also criticized the restrictions last month, telling CP he was “shocked” by the treatment of his former colleague and urging the Trump administration to intervene.
“The continued detainment of an American citizen and former diplomat by a democratic ally for something he said defies belief. This shouldn't be happening. South Korea should allow Morse Tan to return home now,” Brownback said at the time.
In August, several Republican members of Congress also sent a letter to South Korean Ambassador Kang Kyung-hwa criticizing what they described as Tan’s “remarkably unfair treatment” over political speech made while he was in the United States.
