South Korea bars former Trump diplomat Morse Tan from grandmother's funeral amid exit ban

Former Trump diplomat Morse H. Tan was prohibited from attending his 103-year-old grandmother's funeral in the United States last week amid South Korea's exit ban against him, which has lingered for more than four months as he awaits trial for alleged defamation.

On Oct. 8, the Seoul Administrative Court rejected Tan's request to suspend the exit ban so he could travel home for the funeral, according to Korean outlet NewsDaily. The court reportedly acknowledged the urgent personal need, but cited risks to the public interest while Tan's defamation trial proceeds.

Tan, who served as U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice under President Donald Trump from 2019 to 2021, is slated to face his first trial hearing Friday for allegedly defaming South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on American soil last year.

Tan has been slapped with successive travel bans since visiting South Korea in late May to observe local elections amid allegations of irregularities and Chinese interference. He was charged without detention in July following a reopened criminal investigation into remarks he made about Lee during a June 2025 event about Korean election integrity at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

A clip went viral on social media at the time of Tan noting at the event that there have been reports that Lee was involved in "gang-raping and murdering a young lady" when he was a teenager, and that he was consequently unable to attend junior high and high school after being put in juvenile detention.

During an interview with CP in August, Tan was skeptical of the Korean courts and fact-checks that have dismissed the allegations he repeated against Lee, though he framed his situation as a broader violation of his rights as a U.S. citizen amid the erosion of rights in South Korea.

In an emotional eulogy he delivered at Unjeong Chamjon Church in Paju, South Korea, earlier this month, Tan was driven to tears when he honored his grandmother as a faithful Christian whose persevering prayers for her family bore generational spiritual fruit.

KOREA | Ambassador Morse Tan Barred From Grandmother's Funeral Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Morse Tan, held in South Korea under an exit ban, could not attend his grandmother's funeral in the U.S. following her recent passing. Tan has been barred from leaving since May 28 over defamation charges involving President Lee Jae Myung. "I really wanted to be there to honor her," he said. He described a grandmother who prayed daily for every family member and for her husband's salvation for some 60 years. "I stand before you here today as a living answer to her prayers," Tan said. "She is the one from which this whole family descended." As House Republicans urge Seoul to lift the ban, his absence raises questions about free speech and the basic freedom to return home and mourn with family. https://t.co/GDVPzq5i1I

— The Monarch Report (@monarchreport25) October 6, 2026

"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," he said as he was overcome with emotion. "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."

Tan said his grandmother prayed for about 60 years for her unbelieving husband, who physically abused her for going to church. When he was struck down with a stroke and fell into a coma, she refused doctors' advice to take him off the ventilator because he had not yet become a Christian. When he emerged from the coma, he claimed to have encountered Jesus Christ while unconscious and pleaded to Him for another 10 years of life, which Tan said was given to him.

"Before that, his face was always dark," Tan remembered. "And when I saw him there [after his conversion], his face and his countenance were shining. He had become a Christian, and he had given his life to Jesus Christ during that time."

In another video posted to Unjeong Chamjon Church's channel on Oct. 2, Tan said his grandmother would have turned 104 next month. He framed her legacy as that of a faithful, humble woman who "maybe in the world's eyes did not amount to much, but somebody who I believe in God's eyes is first in line."

"I wish I could have been there with her at the bedside as she was passing away, but I couldn't because I'm travel-banned. But she is in glory now, and I am glad that she is in glory now," he said.

Tan, who has been speaking at various churches in Korea throughout his exit ban, has been an outspoken critic of the South Korean government, which he described to CP in August as "a rising dictatorship." He alleged that the key American ally is increasingly communist in its tactics, hostile to Christianity, and subject to "massive infiltration by Chinese Communist Party and North Korean spies, operatives and agents flooding the country."

Last month, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told CP that he was "shocked" by his former colleague's exit ban and called on the Trump administration to intervene. He echoed Tan's concerns about the political trajectory of South Korea, whose former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this year for declaring martial law in 2024.

"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.

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.https://t.co/NyjzE2AQSK

— Sam Brownback (@SamuelBrownback) September 12, 2026

In August, multiple congressional Republicans sent a letter to South Korean Ambassador Kang Kyung-hwa condemning Tan's "remarkably unfair treatment" over political speech he expressed while in his own country.

The scope of South Korea's Information and Communications Network Act, under which Tan was charged, has raised concerns from members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee who fear the law is being used to crack down on the constitutional free speech rights of American citizens and companies.

The U.S. State Department has previously suggested to CP that it is aware of Tan's situation, noting the Trump administration "has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans" and "takes seriously any concerns that U.S. citizens are subject to exit bans without a fair and transparent process to resolve them."

"Due to privacy and other considerations, we have nothing further to share at this time," a spokesperson added.