By It looks like it is amateur hour over at the Honduran Foreign Ministry:
Honduras has withdrawn its designation of a Korean-born woman as its new ambassador to South Korea after realizing belatedly that the country’s law bans naturalized citizens from serving as envoys to their countries of origin, an official at Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Friday, according to Yonhap News.
Last month, Honduras asked for South Korea’s diplomatic consent after naming Kang Young-shin, 57, as ambassador to Seoul. But the Central American nation later found during a legal review that she is not eligible for the post, as she is a former South Korean citizen, the ministry official said.
Kang, 57, a graduate of a teachers’ university in Seoul, worked as an elementary school teacher before moving to Honduras in 1977 when her husband, now deceased, took a position as a professor in the Central American nation.
She became a naturalized Honduran citizen in 1987. [Korea Herald]
I was actually wondering about this when I first posted on this story a few weeks ago. Why would you want someone to represent your country as an ambassador when she put in to have her Korean citizenship restored?
11:44 am on March 20th, 2010 1
I think maybe the oodles and oodles of attention she got in the Korean media ended up "outing" her. Maybe Honduras thought she would be a good representative, someone who could get more economic attention focused on Honduras, so her technical ineligibility for the position was deliberately overlooked. But once the kyopo-done-good stories hit the media, people in Honduras's foreign ministry had no choice but to announce a recall.
12:23 pm on March 20th, 2010 2
She's probably the best-qualified person in Honduras to do the job. How many others know anything about Korea or can speak any Korean? Not very many people.
2:30 pm on March 20th, 2010 3
Honduras, with a per capita gross national income of $1,845, is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere.
Honduras supports efforts at regional integration and deployed troops to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The U.S. is the chief trading partner for Honduras, supplying 52% of Honduran imports and purchasing approximately two-thirds of Honduran exports.
U.S. citizens contemplating investment in real estate in Honduras should proceed with extreme caution, especially in the Bay Islands or coastal areas, because of frequently conflicting legislation, problems with land titles, and a weak judicial system.
In other words my friends, Honduras isn't even a blip on Korea's radar. Hell, they aren't even a good source of foreign brides.
8:10 pm on March 20th, 2010 4
Laporte, the context you put the korean and Honduran relationship is pretty much the way the U.S,EU,Japan, and the rest of the developed world looks at the relationship with Korea. Kind of funny how that works out. I guess everybody needs somebody else to picl on.
1:04 am on March 21st, 2010 5
Agreed. It's nothing new that Korea has always been underestimated by the US, EU, Japan, etc. But let's wait and see what will happen in 20 years when the fortunes are reversed. We'll see if your bankrupted sovereign debt ridden economies be able to ignore the new realities.