Despite Korean concession, Taiwan standing firm on designation issue

Taipei, April 14 (CNA) South Korea's move to no longer show Taiwan as part of China on its electronic arrival card system has not ended a dispute over the matter, as Taipei on Tuesday said it will maintain a retaliatory measure against Seoul because of another longstanding slight.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) had protested for months against Seoul's use of a dropdown menu on its new online immigration entry system that listed Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)," but the Korean side did not initially respond positively.

That prompted Taiwan on March 1 to change South Korea's designation on government-issued Alien Resident Certificates (ARCs) held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea," instead of the official name "Republic of Korea."

On April 10, South Korea finally removed the "previous departure place" and "next destination" fields with the questionable dropdown menus from its e-arrival card system.

● S. Korea's revised e-arrival card eases exchanges between Taiwan, South Korea: MOFA

Responding to a question on the issue Tuesday, however, MOFA spokesperson Hsiao Kuangwei (蕭光偉) said Taiwan would continue to list South Korean nationals as from "South Korea" on their ARCs based on the principle of reciprocity, without elaborating.

A diplomatic source familiar with the matter told CNA later Tuesday that while Taipei viewed Seoul's update of the e-arrival system as a positive step, it would maintain its ARC policy because of another problem that MOFA last discussed publicly in 2013.

The source said for more than a decade, Seoul has listed Taiwanese nationals' nationality on its residency cards as "China (Taiwan)," and Taiwan has protested repeatedly against it, to no avail.

The March 1 decision was not only a response to the e-arrival card issue, but also to what Taipei saw as Seoul's ongoing disregard of its protests over the nationality designation of Taiwanese citizens, according to the source.

Under the principle of reciprocity, Taiwan will continue to list South Korean nationals as being from "South Korea" on ARCs unless Seoul changes the Taiwanese nationality designation on its residency certificates, the source said.

In the dispute, which has played out publicly in recent months, Taiwan had previously only emphasized the problem with the new online immigration entry system's dropdown menus.

Beyond changing the Republic of Korea name on ARCs, Taiwan also threatened to revise its own online immigration system by changing the listing from "Korea, Republic of" to "KOREA (SOUTH)" if Seoul did not respond positively by March 31.

The ministry later suspended this additional retaliatory measure, however, after Seoul said it was updating its e-arrival system.

That measure was never implemented, as Seoul adjusted its system on April 10.

When it announced the adjustment, Seoul said the changes were technical and administrative in nature, aimed at facilitating practical, non-official exchanges, rather than a response to Taiwan's deadline.