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North Korean official's visit to Taiwan not official: ministry

ROC Central News Agency

2012/10/17 22:05:35

Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Wednesday a North Korean official's recent trip to Taiwan was to promote tourism and was not an official visit.

Foreign Minister David Lin said that Jo Sung-gyu, deputy head of the North Korea Tourism Bureau, visited Taiwan on a tourism visa that was issued by Taiwan's representative office in Singapore.

The ministry was aware of the North Korean official's visit, which was a private one, Lin said.

Jo's itinerary in Taiwan "had nothing to do with the MOFA," Lin added.

He said Taiwan's representative office in Singapore did report the matter to the MOFA but not in a timely manner, Lin said.

Since then, the ministry has asked the staff at the Singapore office to improve its reporting mechanism, according to MOFA spokesman Steve Hsia.

James Tien, director-general of the ministry's Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told reporters at a press conference that Jo had visited Taiwan at the invitation of local travel agencies to discuss ways of boosting his country's tourism industry.

Taiwan and North Korea have no official ties and Taiwan's main link to the country is to provide humanitarian aid, Tien said, in response to local media reports that Jo had visited Taiwan Oct. 11-14 without the knowledge of the MOFA.

North Korean nationals wishing to visit Taiwan can do so simply by applying for a visa at one of Taiwan's overseas offices, he added.

Tien told reporters that Jo had visited Taiwan earlier this year, also to promote North Korea's tourism.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Tourism Bureau said it was not aware of Jo's visit or his intention to promote tourism between his country and Taiwan. The bureau said it had not received any advance information from the relevant authorities about the trip.

"The bureau has never had any official contact with North Korea," said Eric Lin, director of the bureau's International Affairs Division.

(By Chen Pei-huang, Lee Hsin-Yin, Ann Chen and Jamie Wang)