TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Koh Sang-wook, acting representative of the Korean Mission in Taipei, lauded close Taiwan-Korea ties at a South Korean National Day celebration on Thursday.
Koh said that Taiwan and South Korea are not only geographically “close neighbors” with shared values, but also “friends” who frequently interact in areas such as culture and the economy.
He said that Taiwan and South Korea have close exchanges, and recently, the use of the term “Taiwan sensibility” (台灣感性) has become popular in South Korea to describe Taiwan’s warm and sincere atmosphere.
Both Taiwan and South Korea hold advantageous positions in the semiconductor industry, and their roles in the global supply chain are complementary, Koh added. This year, South Korea held a Korea-Taiwan Semiconductor Supply Chain Forum at Semicon Taiwan for the first time. This deepened industry-related exchanges between the two countries, he said.
Koh also hoped that the APEC summit to be held later this year in Gyeongju, South Korea, would become an important milestone for international cooperation.
Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Chih-chung (吳志中) said that Taiwan and South Korea share democratic values, enjoy strategic geographic proximity, and possess highly complementary industries. Taiwan will use the global democratic value chain, the First Island Chain in the Indo-Pacific, and the non-Chinese supply chain to bolster its partnership with South Korea, Wu said.
Wu also thanked the foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States, and Japan for issuing a joint statement reaffirming their support for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait in September. The deputy minister reiterated Taiwan’s long-standing support for peace, stability, and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and opposition to military exercises or coercive rhetoric that undermine peace.
Wu emphasized the friendly interactions between the two peoples. In 2024, bilateral visits reached 2.5 million, with Taiwan ranking as the third-largest source of tourists for South Korea and vice versa. He hoped for everlasting friendship and prosperity for the two countries.