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S Korean air links still far off: Chen

"It is unlikely that Taiwan and South Korea will resume air links between the two nations unless South Korea can express the most basic goodwill and sincerity," President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) told the Taipei Times during his inspection tour in southern Taiwan on Thursday.

It has been almost 10 years since the Taiwan-South Korea route was cancelled on Sept. 15, 1992. But with the 2002 FIFA World Cup approaching, the subject has once again become a topic of discussion.

While the government may agree to having some chartered flights for the games, some airlines operators have recently lobbied the legislature to demand that the links be resumed in full. But the president's comments suggested he is pessimistic that such a move would be possible.

"They [South Korean officials] want everything. But they don't have an attitude of goodwill at all," Chen told the Taipei Times in private at a dinner party on Thursday.

"Frequently, South Korea actively flatters and toadies Beijing. This has hampered Taiwan-South Korea relations." Chen said.

Before he was elected president, Chen twice visited South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the two enjoy a good relationship. However, Chen expressed his discontent with Kim on Thursday.

At the crux of the air-links issue is the question of how the agreement should be signed. The government has insisted on signing the agreement in an official capacity, namely the ROC, to safeguard the dignity of Taiwan.

But Seoul has balked at the idea, preferring that Taiwan sign any agreement in a "non-governmental" capacity.

When former minister of transportation and communications Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) attended the APEC ministerial-level meeting in South Korea in 2000, the Chen administration took the opportunity to suggest that Yeh's South Korean counterpart sign an agreement on the matter while on a "vacation" to Taiwan.

The proposal was turned down by Seoul, reportedly because of Seoul's fear of infuriating Beijing.

Recent speculation has suggested that the decision to not allow Korean Air to fly charter planes from Taiwan during the World Cup was made in response to South Korea's decision to force first lady Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) to postpone her visit to the country.

Despite South Korea's requests to resume flights over the past 10 years, Taiwan has assumed a passive attitude toward the resumption in order to safeguard its national dignity.

In addition, with the South Korean presidential election in December, Kim has become a lame duck in the aviation negotiations.

Translated by Eddy Chang and Jackie Lin
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