RELEASE | Save the Persecuted Christians Demands President Trump Force South Korea to Free Ambassador Morse Tan
Save the Persecuted Christians Demands President Trump Force South Korea to Free Ambassador Morse Tan
Leaders Unite to Press for Diplomat’s Return
Washington, D.C. — Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC) is joining a coalition of national security, human rights, and religious freedom leaders in demanding that President Trump act now to free an American diplomat from the grip of a government that calls itself an ally.
STPC has signed a joint letter to President Donald J. Trump demanding immediate action to free Ambassador Morse Tan from South Korea — and to make clear that this treatment of an American diplomat will not be tolerated.
Ambassador Tan, who served with distinction as U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice during President Trump’s first administration, has been trapped in South Korea since he landed there at the start of June — barred from coming home by an exit ban the government of President Lee Jae Myung has now extended twice. Seoul has set September 11 as the date it intends to put an American diplomat on trial.
Tan’s actual “crime” is remarks he made at the National Press Club in Washington in June 2025 — on American soil, protected by the First Amendment, and, by South Korea’s own legal code, protected there too. Seoul is prosecuting an American diplomat for exercising free speech in the United States. That is not how allies treat one another. That is the conduct of a government sliding toward authoritarianism.
“Ambassador Tan’s treatment is an outrage — it is flagrant human rights abuse dressed up as a legal proceeding, and undeniable proof of the authoritarian turn now underway in South Korea,” said Dede Laugesen, President and CEO of Save the Persecuted Christians. “One of America’s most important allies in East Asia is jailing conservative pastors, targeting churches that won’t bow to the Lee Jae Myung government, and cozying up to Communist China and North Korea — two of the worst persecutors of Christians on Earth. That is not the behavior of an ally standing with us on shared values; it is the behavior of a government turning its back on them, and on us. President Trump must pick up the phone, tell President Lee plainly that this is unacceptable, and secure Ambassador Tan’s immediate release. No more delay.”
The letter, organized by the Committee on the Present Danger: China and published today, puts it bluntly: South Korea cannot have it both ways. It cannot court billions of dollars in commercial and military shipbuilding partnerships with the United States while simultaneously holding an American diplomat hostage to a bogus defamation charge. The President must make clear that continued mistreatment of Ambassador Tan, and the broader pattern of repression and strategic realignment behind it, are flatly incompatible with a strong U.S.–ROK alliance.
Save the Persecuted Christians stands with its fellow signatories in demanding one outcome, and one outcome only: Ambassador Tan comes home now. An alliance built on shared security and shared values cannot survive if one side treats the other’s diplomats like criminals for the crime of speaking freely — and Washington should not pretend otherwise.
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About Save the Persecuted Christians
Save the Persecuted Christians is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending religious freedom and advocating for persecuted Christians worldwide, with particular focus on regions where faith communities face systematic violence, legal discrimination, and state-sponsored repression.