South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday.
A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system.
The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said.
Photo: Taipei Times
The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form — would be removed for all inbound travelers, not just Taiwanese visitors, the official said.
The move is technical and administrative in nature, not a response to any deadline set by Taiwan, but part of efforts to facilitate practical, non-official exchanges, the official added.
The change follows controversy over the system listing Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in dropdown menus in its online entry system.
Earlier, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would consider retaliatory adjustments to how South Korea is labeled in Taiwan’s own system if no response was received by yesterday.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) had said that Taiwan would revise its online immigration entry system, changing South Korea’s listing from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South).”
However, the ministry yesterday said it would temporarily hold off on such changes, citing South Korea’s ongoing review and its expectations of a positive response to Taiwan’s concerns.
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