In an event held at the Washington Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia on June 12, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, accompanied by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner David V. Aguilar, and the Republic of Korea’s Minister of Justice Jae-Jin Kwon, announced a reciprocal agreement for each nation’s trusted traveler programs – the U.S. Global Entry program and the Republic of Korea’s Smart Entry Service.

Secretary Napolitano said, “I am proud of the extraordinary bond between the United States and the Republic of Korea, and today’s agreement marks another major step forward in our partnership. Global Entry and Korea’s Smart Entry Service are not just quick, easy, and efficient for travelers; they also help our customs authorities focus on those travelers we know less about, so that we can more effectively identify potential threats and keep our border and countries secure.”

Korea now joins Canada and the Netherlands as the only three countries to operate “a fully reciprocal, publicly available trusted traveler program with the United States.” The press release on the announcement noted that Global Entry is, “currently available at 25 U.S. International airports,” and “streamlines the screening process at airports for trusted travelers through biometric identification and reduces average wait times by 70 percent, with more than 75 percent of travelers using Global Entry processed in under five minutes. Further, “more than a million trusted travelers now receive Global Entry benefits and these travelers have used its automated kiosks to expedite their entry more than 2.3 million times since the program’s inception.”