South Koreans in Taiwan and local tourist industry leaders urged the government yesterday to seriously consider resuming air links between Taiwan and South Korea.
Former South Korean president Kim Young-sam ended his five-day visit to Taiwan.
Kim went to church yesterday and then attended lunch with overseas Korean students and businessmen.
During the luncheon, according to Kang Myeong-sang, director of the Institute of China Relations at Korea's Kyungnam University, many people hoped that a resumption of air links between the two could be implemented as soon as possible.
"The former president echoed their comments and said that he would endeavor to help resume the air links," Kang said.
Kim's, whose five-day visit drew tremendous media attention to the air links issue, repeatedly stressed, however, that the South Korean government had never authorized him to discuss the issue with Taipei.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) also set forth three conditions for a resumption in air links -- Taiwan's national dignity, substantial benefits and parity -- when meeting with Kim at the Presidential Office on Thursday. He said those principles must be guaranteed before any official negotiations are launched between the two governments.
Kim received red carpet treatment, which included four meetings with President Chen and dinners with Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) and secretary-general to the president Yu Shyi-kun.
Though some local politicians and media gave negative coverage of Kim's controversial presidential record toward Taiwan and questioned why Chen had invited him, the Presidential Office still regarded the visit as having "positive significance."
Meanwhile, many of Taiwan's tourist industry leaders yesterday said they hoped Kim's visit would usher in official negotiations between the two countries.
"Since Taiwan broke air links with South Korea in September 1992, people from both countries have suffered tremendous inconvenience, which has caused tourism between the two countries to wither," said general manager of the Yuan Fa travel agency Wang Yuan-fa (王永發), a South Korean living in Taiwan.
Wang stressed that there are at least 50,000 South Koreans living in Taiwan and that many of them face problems of increased business costs and family problems because of the lack of air links between the two countries.
The Metropolitan Travel Agency's sgeneral manager, Lin Chin-lang (林進郎), also pointed out that the South Korean landscape is quite similar to Japan's while travel costs to South Korea could be much cheaper.
"Korea is one of the favorite places for Taiwanese tourists, and we believe the resumption of air links will help improve the current economic depression," Lin said.
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