President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of April 21 with Chairman and Mrs. Kim Ho-Yeon of Korea's Kim Koo Foundation. The president thanked his visitors for their many contributions to cultural and educational cooperation between Taiwan and Korea, and briefed them on the state of bilateral exchanges.
In remarks, President Ma noted that Mr. and Mrs. Kim have deep ties with Taiwan. Mrs. Kim (Kim Mee) is the granddaughter of Mr. Kim Koo, a leader of the Korean nationalist movement. Former ROC President Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正) once provided financial support for Kim Koo as he carried out Korean independence movement activities in Shanghai, Chongqing, and elsewhere. The friendship between the two leaders was quite deep. Kim Mee's father, Ambassador Kim Shin, was born in 1922 in Shanghai, graduated from the ROC Air Force Academy, and served as ambassador to the ROC from 1962 to 1970. As such, Kim Shin was an important bridge for bilateral communications in the course of his career. You could even say that Ambassador Kim's historical development and struggles bear witness to the modern history of both the ROC and Korea. Kim Mee, for her part, studied at Taipei First Girls High School during her father's time as ambassador to the ROC, and has many old friends here.
The president mentioned that for many years, Chairman Kim has made considerable contributions to bilateral relations as well as academic and cultural exchanges. This past February 24, the Kim Koo Foundation and National Taiwan University (NTU) signed a letter of intent regarding exchanges and cooperation, under which the Foundation pledged to donate US$2 million to establish a Kim Shin Forum and Kim Koo Chair at the NTU College of Social Sciences. This is the first time that a Korean corporation has funded social science research in Taiwan. In addition to spurring increased understanding between young people in the two countries, the Foundation's funding of a professorial chair is also a milestone in bilateral relations that clearly attests to the deep friendship of Chairman and Mrs. Kim for the ROC.
President Ma stated that ROC-Korea ties date back many years. In 1938, former ROC President Chiang Kai-shek had trumpeted a slogan—Restore Korea and Taiwan, and Consolidate the Republic of China, and at the Cairo Conference of 1943 the ROC called for Korean independence, which shows how deep the historical ties are between these two countries. The 70th anniversary of the end of World War II last year made reflecting on the historical relationship between the two countries even more meaningful.
On the subject of "comfort women" (wartime sex slaves during World War II), President Ma remarked that the issue started to receive serious attention in the 1990s after Koreans organized to seek redress for the victims. Those who first came forward, said the president, showed admirable courage. Noting that the governments of Japan and Korea reached a deal last year to settle the issue, the president expressed hope that Taiwan and Japan can achieve similar progress and give back to "comfort women" the dignity and good reputation they deserve.
Commenting on cooperative relations between Taiwan and Korea, President Ma noted that economic, trade, cultural, educational, tourist, and people-to-people ties have grown increasingly close in recent years. In the area of economic and trade ties, Korea is currently Taiwan's fifth-largest trading partner, while Taiwan is Korea's seventh-largest trading partner, with two-way trade hitting US$25.6 billion last year in spite of a volatile global economy. In the field of education, the ROC Ministry of Education established a Taiwan Education Center last December at Korea's Konkuk University to serve as a platform for bilateral exchanges in the field of higher education. Korea's Ministry of Education, with the help of funding from the Academy of Korean Studies, also set up the Center of Culture and Education in Korean Studies at Taiwan's National Chengchi University. The establishment of such centers, said the president, can be expected to spur increased understanding of each other's culture.
The president further pointed out that the commencement of flights between Taipei's Songshan Airport and Seoul's Gimpo International Airport in April of 2012 was the realization of an idea that he had first proposed in 2007 during his campaign for the presidency when he called for the establishment of a "golden aviation loop" in Northeast Asia. In July of that same year, Taiwan and Korea extended length-of-stay privileges under visa-free entry from 30 to 90 days, further enhancing the convenience of travel between the two countries. As for the tourism industry, two-way tourist arrivals topped one million for the first time in 2014, reaching 1.15 million. Taiwan is now Korea's third-largest source of tourists, while Korea is the fastest-growing source of foreign tourists in Taiwan. It is also worth noting, said the president, that Korean tourist arrivals in Taiwan last year hit an all-time high of 650,000, up roughly 25% from the year before and surpassing for the first time the number of Taiwanese tourist arrivals in Korea. It is thus quite clear, he said, that tourist ties between the two countries are quite strong.
The president also mentioned that music, television dramas, and other aspects of Korean pop culture are extremely popular in Taiwan. The current Korean TV drama Descendants of the Sun, for example, is a huge hit with viewers here. "So you can see," he said, "that Korea's cultural and creative industry really does have great drawing power." Looking to the future, the president expressed hope that Taiwan and Korea can further enhance exchanges and interaction at all levels, thereby enhancing bilateral friendship and cooperation.