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S Korea ignores protests over nationality issue

South Korea has continued to ignore requests from Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to refrain from designating Taiwanese visiting the country as nationals of "China, Taiwan."

Seoul's move came in the wake of a meeting between South Korean and Chinese officials in Qingdao, China, in October 2004, when both sides agreed that Taiwanese visiting South Korea would no longer be identified as nationals of "Taiwan" beginning December that year.

Speaking to lawmakers concerned with South Korea's treatment of Taiwanese nationals, ministry officials said that the issue had given rise to numerous, heated backdoor exchanges between Taiwanese and South Korean diplomats, including a meeting between Seoul's representative in Taipei, Oh Songsik, and Donald Lee (李傳通), director-general of the ministry's Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs on March 13.

In the meeting, Lee registered Taipei's displeasure with Seoul's designation of Taiwanese as nationals of "China, Taiwan" and urged South Korea to revert to designating Taiwanese as nationals from "Taiwan," foreign ministry officials told Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Shu-hui (王淑慧) recently.

Oh replied that South Korea's position on the issue was "inflexible," but that he would convey Taipei's complaints to South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, officials said.

Taiwanese representatives in Seoul have also been urging South Korean lawmakers and top government officials to revise the designation, the officials said, adding that a lack of response on Seoul's part prompted Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Katharine Chang (張小月) to meet again with Oh to discuss the issue in Taipei on March 19.

That meeting also proved futile in reversing Seoul's stance on the nationality issue.

While Taiwanese diplomats have aggressively lobbied for a reversal to its original designation since the measure was implemented in 2004, Seoul has not once engaged Taipei on the issue, officials said.

Officials added that under pressure from China, more countries in the region are following South Korea's example in labeling incoming Taiwanese as nationals of "China, Taiwan."
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