South Korean students warned over posts amid US crackdown
President Donald Trump's administration is raising scrutiny over the social media posts of South Korean students in the United States or who plan to study there, the students and agencies that support them said.
That has triggered concerns for parents of students studying or planning to study in the United States. South Korean students are the third-largest among international students in the US, behind those from India and China.
The US administration ordered its missions abroad to stop scheduling new appointments for student and exchange visitor visa applicants as the State Department prepared to expand social media vetting of foreign students, according to an internal cable seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
The Trump administration has sought to ramp up deportations and revoke student visas as part of wide-ranging efforts to meet its hardline immigration agenda.
'My clients, parents are calling me constantly today to figure out what is going on,' said Park Hyuntae, head of Worldnet US Overseas Edu Center, an agency in Seoul that assists South Korean students.
'Those who already scheduled those interviews and will apply for interviews both are worried, nervous, but cancellations of existing interviews haven't happened yet as far as I know.' Park said the visa interview pause could cause delays in starting the school year, and that he was advising clients to be cautious over what they post online.
'I am telling them, especially male students, do not post anything extreme or disgusting on social media, like pictures of grenades or weapons,' he said.
An email reviewed by Reuters from a liberal arts college told students overseas that scheduled visa interviews might be postponed and suggested they gave their 'socials a little attention.'
Stiff competition to get into South Korea's top universities has driven many students to study abroad, according to the US International Trade Administration.
One South Korean student who studies in the United States said he had friends who were unable to schedule visa interviews, and that he was concerned about his own plans to try to work in the United States after graduation.
'I think what is now the United States is a lot different than the United States in the past,' he said, asking not to be identified.
South Korea's leading presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party will seek a personal phone call with President Donald Trump, if elected, as the first step in engaging with Washington, Lee's foreign policy adviser said on Wednesday.
Wi Sung-lac, national security adviser to Lee, made the comment when asked about Lee's plans for the first move in trade talks with the United States, at a briefing held for foreign media in Seoul.
In a separate development, the US State Department has ordered the suspension of student visa processing in the latest escalation of a Trump administration crackdown on foreign students criticised on Wednesday by China.
Trump's administration is seeking unprecedented control over leading US universities, including revoking foreign student visas and deporting some of those involved in protests against the war in Gaza.
A cable signed on Tuesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and seen by AFP orders embassies and consulates not to allow 'any additional student or exchange visa... appointment capacity until further guidance is issued.'
The government plans to ramp up vetting of the social media profiles of international applicants to US universities, the cable said.
Rubio earlier rescinded hundreds of visas and the Trump administration has moved to bar Harvard University from admitting non-Americans.
China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Wednesday said Beijing urged Washington to 'safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those from China.'
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students attend US universities, long viewed by many in China as beacons of academic freedom and rigour. The sweeping US measures have resulted in foreign governments moving to snap up affected students, with Japan and Hong Kong urging local universities to take in more international applicants.
Reuters
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Khaleej Times
an hour ago
- Khaleej Times
Trump says Macrons 'are fine' after plane row video
US President Donald Trump said Friday that Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were "fine," after a viral video appeared to show her shoving the French president's face on a trip to Vietnam. "Make sure the door remains closed," the three-times married Trump quipped to reporters when asked if he had any "world leader to world leader marital advice" for Macron about the video. "That was not good," added Trump, who was holding a joint press conference with billionaire Elon Musk in the Oval Office. The incident was filmed just as the door of the French presidential plane swung open after landing in Hanoi on Sunday. It showed Brigitte Macron, 72, apparently shoving her husband's face. Macron, 47, appeared startled but quickly recovered and turns to wave through the open door. The 78-year-old US president, who has long had a "bromance" with his French counterpart, said he had been in touch with him since. "I spoke to him. He's fine. They're fine. They're two really good people. I know them very well," added Trump. "I don't know what that was all about." Macron himself denied on Monday that the couple had been having a domestic dispute. He blamed disinformation campaigns for trying to put false meaning on the footage. Musk, who was marking his departure from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, meanwhile took the chance to joke at Macron's expense. Asked about a black eye he was sporting, the tycoon replied "I wasn't anywhere near France" to the apparent puzzlement of a reporter who asked him to explain the comment. Musk then said it was his son who caused the injury with a punch.
Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Pakistan, India close to completing border troop reduction, says senior military general
Pakistan and India are close to reducing the troop build up along their border to levels before conflict erupted between the nuclear-armed neighbours this month, a top Pakistani military official told Reuters on Friday, although he warned the crisis had increased the risk of escalation in the future. Both sides used fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery in four days of clashes, their worst fighting in decades, before a ceasefire was announced. The spark for the latest fighting between the old enemies was an April 22 attack in Indian Kashmir that killed 26 people, most of them tourists. New Delhi blamed the incident on 'terrorists' backed by Pakistan, a charge denied by Islamabad. On May 7, India launched missiles at what it said were 'terrorist infrastructure' sites across the border and as Pakistan responded with its own attacks, both countries built up additional forces along the frontier. General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Pakistan's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview that the two militaries had started the process of drawing down troop levels. 'We have almost come back to the pre-22nd April situation... we are approaching that, or we must have approached that by now,' said Mirza, the most senior Pakistani military official to speak publicly since the conflict. India's ministry of defence and the office of the Indian chief of defence staff did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the remarks by Mirza. Mirza, who is in Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue forum, said while there was no move towards nuclear weapons during this conflict, it was a dangerous situation. 'Nothing happened this time,' he said. 'But you can't rule out any strategic miscalculation at any time, because when the crisis is on, the responses are different.' He also said the risk of escalation in the future had increased since the fighting this time was not limited to the disputed territory of Kashmir. The two sides attacked military installations in their mainlands but neither has acknowledged any serious damage. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Pakistan this month that New Delhi would target 'terrorist hideouts' across the border again if there were new attacks on India. 'This (conflict) lowers the threshold between two countries who are contiguous nuclear the future, it will not be restricted to the disputed territory. It would come down to (the) whole of India and (the) whole of Pakistan,' Mirza said. 'This is a very dangerous trend.' Reuters has reported that the rapid escalation of hostilities ended in part because of behind-the-scenes diplomacy involving the US, India and Pakistan, and the key role played by Washington in brokering peace. India has denied any third-party role in the ceasefire and said that any engagement between India and Pakistan has to be bilateral. But Mirza warned that international mediation might be difficult in the future because of a lack of crisis management mechanisms between the countries. 'The time window for the international community to intervene would now be very less, and I would say that damage and destruction may take place even before that time window is exploited by the international community,' he said. Pakistan was open to dialogue, he added, but beyond a crisis hotline between the directors general of military operations and some hotlines at the tactical level on the border, there was no other communication between the two countries. New Delhi has maintained a hard line on any possible rapprochement. 'If there are talks, it will only be on terrorism and (Pakistan Kashmir),' Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday. 'If Pakistan is serious about talks, it should hand over India so that justice is served.' Mirza said there were no backchannel discussions, or informal talks, to ease tensions. He also said he had no plans to meet General Anil Chauhan, India's chief of defence staff, who is also in Singapore for the Shangri-La Forum. 'These issues can only be resolved by dialogue and consultations, on the table. They cannot be resolved on the battlefield,' Mirza said. Reuters
Khaleej Times
3 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Watch: Why did Musk have a black eye at farewell? Billionaire brushes aside drug abuse claims
Billionaire Elon Musk bade farewell to Donald Trump in an extraordinary Oval Office appearance Friday, sporting a black eye, brushing aside drug abuse claims and vowing to stay a "friend and advisor" to the US president. As the world's richest person bowed out of his role as Trump's cost-cutter-in-chief, the Republican hailed Musk's "incredible service" and handed him a golden key to the White House. But Trump insisted that Musk was "really not leaving" after a turbulent four months in which his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered whole agencies and slashed foreign aid. "He's going to be back and forth," said Trump, showering praise on the tech tycoon for what he called the "most sweeping and consequential government reform programme in generations." South-African born Musk, wearing a black T-shirt with the word "Dogefather" in white lettering and a black DOGE baseball cap, said many of the $1 trillion savings he promised would take time to bear fruit. "I look forward to continuing to be a friend and advisor to the president," he said. But many people were more interested in the livid black bruise around Musk's right eye. Speculation about the cause was further fueled by accusations in the New York Times Friday that Musk used so much of the drug ketamine on the 2024 campaign trail that he developed bladder problems. 'Punch me' The SpaceX and Tesla magnate said that his son was to blame for the injury. "I was just horsing around with lil' X, and I said, 'go ahead punch me in the face,'" 53-year-old Musk said. "And he did. Turns out even a five-year-old punching you in the face actually is..." he added, before tailing off. Watch the video by Reuters here: Musk, however, dodged a question about the drug allegations. The New York Times said Musk, the biggest donor to Trump's 2024 election campaign, also took ecstasy and psychoactive mushrooms and traveled with a pill box last year. Musk, who has long railed against the news media and championed his X social media platform as an alternative, took aim at the paper instead. "Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russiagate?" said Musk, referring to claims that Trump's 2016 election campaign colluded with Moscow. "Let's move on. Okay. Next question." Later in the day, when a reporter asked Trump if he was "aware of Elon Musk's regular drug use," Trump simply responded: "I wasn't." "I think Elon is a fantastic guy," he added. The White House had earlier played down the report. "The drugs that we're concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border" from Mexico, said Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, whose wife works for Musk. Musk has previously admitted to taking ketamine, saying he was prescribed it to treat a "negative frame of mind" and suggesting his use of drugs benefited his work. 'Disappointed' The latest in a series of made-for-TV Oval Office events was aimed at putting a positive spin on Musk's departure. Musk is leaving Trump's administration under a cloud, after admitting disillusionment with his role and criticising the Republican president's spending plans. It was a far cry from his first few weeks as Trump's chainsaw-brandishing sidekick. At one time Musk was almost inseparable from Trump, glued to his side on Air Force One, Marine One, in the White House and at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The right-wing magnate's DOGE led an ideologically-driven rampage through the federal government, with its young "tech bros" slashing tens of thousands of jobs. But DOGE's achievements fell far short of Musk's original goal of saving $2 trillion dollars. The White House says DOGE has made $170 billion in savings so far. The independent "Doge Tracker" site has counted just $12 billion while the Atlantic magazine put it far lower, at $2 billion. Musk's "move fast and break things" mantra was also at odds with some of his cabinet colleagues, and he said earlier this week that he was "disappointed" in Trump's planned mega tax and spending bill as it undermined DOGE's cuts. Musk's companies, meanwhile, have suffered. Tesla shareholders called for him to return to work as sales slumped and protests targeted the electric vehicle maker, while SpaceX had a series of fiery rocket failures.
