Aurora in Contention for New South Korean Consulate

The City of Aurora has a strong bid at hosting a consulate of the South Korean government, which could make it a regional hub for one of the largest immigrant groups in the country and deepen already tight bonds between South Korea and Colorado’s third-largest city.

Consulates help immigrants and United States citizens maintain connections while abroad. They’re places where immigrants retrieve their native passports, birth certificates and other documents to coordinate a return home or to apply for permission to continue living in the U.S. Consulates are also where U.S. citizens can apply for visas if they want to move, work or study abroad. About a dozen consulates exist in Denver for countries like Canada, Ireland and Mexico.

Aurora, which calls itself “the world in a city,” hosts consulates for El Salvador and for Honduras, which opened last September. According to Aurora community outreach coordinator Minsoo Song, who’s leading the effort for a South Korean consulate, the city has “a really strong” case for receiving a new consulate, and “there’s just a constant need within the Korean community” in the city.

“The Korean community has been here forever, and they feel left out, like nobody is taking care of them from the Korean government,” Song says. “It’s really important to have a consulate office here so people can access basic consular services, but it’s not just limited to the Korean community.”

Aurora’s Case for a Consulate

There are more than 700,000 South Korean immigrants nationwide, with around 14,000 in Colorado and approximately 2,400 in Aurora, U.S. Census Bureau data shows. According to the City of Aurora, South Koreans are the fourth-largest immigrant group in the city, behind people from Mexico, Ethiopia and Vietnam (the Census Bureau estimates that South Korean immigrants in Aurora now slightly outnumber those from Vietnam, however).

A South Korean consulate would serve Colorado and neighboring states in the Rocky Mountain region, including Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and Utah, which comprises about 150,000 South Koreans, according to Song. 

“I’m over 6,400 miles away from my parents, they’re all in Korea, so my biggest fear is I might not be there when they need me,” she explains. “If we have a consulate office, it’s an easy process, but right now there’s no consulate office here.”

Right now, the closest South Korean consulates to Colorado are in San Francisco and Chicago. South Korean consular officials from San Francisco come to Colorado to offer services twice a year, but reservations are required in advance. Song estimates that when consulars come to Colorado, they process upwards of 300 cases each time.

“If anybody from the Korean community needs consular services, they either need to travel all the way to San Francisco to get their passport or access any consular service, or wait for satellite services to come here,” she says. “So if there’s a consulate in Colorado, they could access consular services within a day’s trip.” 

It’s the “same thing for the business community here,” according to Song, as South Korean companies want their government nearby if they’re going to do business in Colorado. Most South Korean companies do business on the east and west coast, she says, because they don’t know about the inland areas without consulates like the Rocky Mountain region.

“Many, many Korean companies want to explore operating in the U.S., but a lot of these companies want to know if we have a Korean government presence. That’s one thing we’re lacking,” Song adds. “Consular offices, they don’t just have consular services, but they promote economical exchanges. It’ll be so much easier for a U.S. company that wants to do business in Korea and vice versa.”

Bond Between Aurora and South Korea

Aurora has several popular South Korean restaurants along Havana Street, and there are Korean Christian churches west of the Havana corridor and north of Parker Road. The Korean grocery story H Mart has become a landmark in that part of Aurora, as well, surrounded by Korean bakeries, karaoke and barbecue, giving it a small “Korea Town” vibe. According to Mayor Mike Coffman, the city is home to more than 330 Korean-owned businesses.

The City of Aurora often touts visits from foreign elected leaders and sends delegations to cities around the world through sister city deals, or agreements to keep an ongoing network and cultural and intellectual exchange with another city. Since 1992, Aurora has had a sister city deal with the South Korean city Seongnam, where current South Korean President Lee Jae Myung was mayor from 2010 to 2018. 

Lee came to visit Aurora towards the end of his mayoral administration, Song says, and she remembers it going well enough to have made him a potential supporter of sending a consulate to Aurora. 

“During his visit, he was really impressed with the city of Aurora and the local Korean community,” Song says. “We do have a really strong champion for the City of Aurora in the Korean government.” 

Support Within Aurora

A South Korean Consulate has been in the works in Aurora since 2019, when the city hosted a medal ceremony for Korean War veterans, with U.S. and South Korean ambassadors present. Song says the ambassadors “were pleased to see the support from the local Korean community and the city,” and that the ambassadors suggested the idea of a consulate to Aurora officials.

When the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly brought international travel and trade to a halt in 2020, Song thought “nothing could be done” to rescue the idea, but then Coffman, who began his term in December 2019, quickly became the “greatest supporter” for continuing the effort. In November, Song accompanied Colorado Lieutenant Governor Dianne Primavera to a visit to South Korea and delivered letters of support from Governor Jared Polis and senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper.

Aurora is competing with cities worldwide for a South Korean consulate, as Korean diasporas exist in China, Canada, Australia and Japan, as well, Song notes. Still, she thinks “Aurora is a very strong candidate,” and is “very optimistic” that the city could have a South Korean consulate within the next two or three years.

In March, Aurora launched a Colorado Korean Consulate Establishment Committee to help formulate the city’s bid and gather support from the local South Korean community. Next month, the committee will travel to South Korea to present Aurora’s case to members of the South Korean National Assembly, Song says.

After that, Aurora will wait for to hear from the South Korean National Assembly, which must approve a budget for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs to open new consulates, explains Song, who feels “very positive” about the committee’s upcoming visit.

“In the meantime, we’ll keep on reinforcing our message to the Korean government,” Song says. “It’s not just about hosting a consulate here in the city, but we’re trying our best to put our name out there. There’s so much potential. People just don’t know much about Aurora.”