President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of May 28 with a delegation led by Korean National Assembly Member Cho Kyoung-Tae, the president of the Korea-Taiwan Parliamentarian Friendship Association. In addition to extending a warm welcome to the group, President Ma expressed hope that Mr. Cho will promote the signing of an economic cooperation agreement, an investment guarantee agreement, and a bilateral agreement on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, thereby fostering even closer cooperation between Taiwan and Korea.
In remarks, the president first thanked Mr. Cho for actively promoting substantive and friendly relations between Taiwan and Korea for many years. He noted that Mr. Cho was instrumental in enabling ROC Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to lead a group of lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties here to attend the inauguration ceremonies of Park Geun-Hye as the 18th-term president of Korea on February 24 and 25 of this year. Mr. Cho's efforts have promoted interaction among high-ranking officials and parliamentarians from the two sides, the president said.
President Ma mentioned that Korea is Taiwan's sixth largest trading partner, while Taiwan is Korea's ninth largest, and bilateral trade last year amounted to US$26.92 billion. The president commented that President Park has sought since her inauguration to nurture the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while the 1.2 million SMEs in Taiwan account for 98% of all enterprises here. He said he is thus confident that close interaction and cooperation between Taiwan and Korea will create a win-win situation.
Regarding tension on the Korean Peninsula in recent years, President Ma said that Taiwan, as an important member of the East Asian region, has long paid close attention to developments in the region, and has been a steadfast supporter of the position of Korea, Japan, and the United States. The president condemned the launch by North Korea of six short-range missiles between May 18 and May 20, saying that this action has increased regional tensions. He reiterated his call for North Korea to squarely face the concerns of the international community and not take any action that would further exacerbate tensions. All parties, the president said, should work together to maintain peace and stability in the region.
Noting that Korea and Japan over 40 years ago signed fisheries and mineral rights agreements, President Ma remarked that after 16 rounds of negotiations spanning a period of 17 years, Taiwan and Japan finally on April 10 of this year signed a fisheries agreement that provides for joint conservation and management of the seas covered under the agreement, enabling fishermen from the two nations to work without interference. The president said that the pact dovetails with the East China Sea Peace Initiative that he introduced last August, and puts into practice the principle that "national sovereignty cannot be divided, but natural resources can be shared." He expressed confidence that this pact will substantively promote the goal of turning the East China Sea into a sea of peace and cooperation.
The president then remarked on the Guang Da Xing No. 28 fishing boat incident on May 9, in which a Philippine government vessel used automatic weapons to attack an unarmed Taiwanese fishing boat that was operating within the ROC's economic zone south of Taiwan, resulting in the death of a Taiwanese fisherman. He reiterated that the government has made four demands of the Philippines, namely: to offer a formal apology; to provide compensation for the losses; to promptly and thoroughly investigate the incident and severely punish those responsible for the killing; and to initiate fishery negotiations between the two countries as soon as possible. He also said that Taiwan, under the principle of "equality and reciprocity, obtaining consensus, and resolving the matter as soon as possible," wants to activate the mutual judicial assistance mechanism between the two countries in order to clarify what happened and punish those responsible. At present, he noted, investigators from both Taiwan and the Philippines are carrying out criminal investigations in each other's territory.
President Ma stressed that the ROC is a peace-loving nation, but will vigorously pursue justice and fair treatment when one of its citizens is killed. At the same time, he pledged, the government will strive to protect the freedom and safety of Philippine nationals working in Taiwan. He said that the government does not want Philippine nationals working here to bear the brunt of the anger and dissatisfaction of the public here against the Philippine government.
The delegation also included lawmakers Kim Kyung Hyub and Chun Soon Ok. The group was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Shen-Yeaw Ko (柯森耀) and Korean Mission in Taipei Deputy Representative Choe Yong-Jin to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were Secretary-General to the President Timothy Chin-Tien Yang (楊進添) and National Security Council Advisor Chung Chien (鍾堅).