Expectation to Restore Regular Flight Route between Seoul ~ Taipei

``I will do my best to strengthen the friendly relationship between two countries by solidifying interchanges in the field of trade, travel, culture, and sports.``

Lee Zhong-Ru, the newly assigned Secretary of the Taiwanese Mission in Korea, showed a strong will to improve the relationship between Korea and Taiwan at an exclusive interview with the Donga Ilbo on 11th. Lee began his career as a diplomat in 1959 and worked as the director of International Organization Bureau, and the Secretary of Taiwanese Mission in Australia and Greece.

· How do you forecast about the biggest issue between two countries, restoration of the regular flight route between Seoul and Taipei?

``Taiwan wants to restore the regular flight route for the sake of economic benefit and the dignity of the country. Since both countries agree on the need, if we discuss on the issue with sincerity and good will, there will be a good result.``

· How about the man-power interchange including international students between two countries?

``There are about 1,300 Korean international students in Taiwan now. As studying in the main land become available, the number of Korean students in Taiwan dropped down. But, a half of whole international students is Koreans. When the Taiwanese government selects scholarship recipients, they treat Korean students very well. And among about 20,000 Chinese diasporas in Korea, 99 percent of them have Taiwanese citizenships. I expect Korean government’s cooperation for them to acclimate to Korean society.``

· How do you see the future relationship with the main land?

``Although there still difficulty exists, we are trying to reconcile with the main land through economic interchange and visit of relatives. When China achieves democracy that will allow multi number of parties, free election, and freedom of speech and press, unification of two countries will become possible someday. Regarding the issue of unification, the words stressed by President Kim Dae-Jung, ``unification in Korean Peninsular will be achieved based on a democratic system``, are still impressive to me.``

· As Taiwanese economy weakens, there is a concern of crisis….

``As the weekly labor hour is cut short from 44 to 40, some enterprises are leaving to other countries to avoid additional expenses. I see this trend as a painful procedure to go to the democracy. The government, which was focusing on democratization for one year, is concentrating on the problem of economy. Especially, they are trying their best to restore domestic demand introducing 25 billion dollars of foreign funds.

Secretary Lee said that he likes to sing Patty Kim’s `Farewell` that he learned while he was in college. He also said that ``he is interested in the history of postal service system during the late Chosun Dynasty right before the `Kabo Reformation``.

Cho Hun-Joo hanscho@donga.com