Kang Young-sun,
Hondura's former ambassador nominee |
By Kim Se-jong
Staff Reporter
Honduras has withdrawn its designation of Kang Young-sun, 57, a Korean-born immigrant, as its new ambassador to Korea, Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Friday.
According to ministry officials, the withdrawal was made because of Honduras’s laws that bars naturalized citizens from serving as envoys to their countries of origin, although the country allows dual citizenship.
``Honduras belatedly realized her appointment as ambassador to Korea violates its law,’’ a ministry official said.
He said that only after the request was made, did the Central American nation find that she was not eligible for the post, as she was born in Korea.
Kang graduated from a teachers' university in Seoul and worked as an elementary school teacher before moving to Honduras in 1977 when her husband took a position as a professor at its military academy. She became naturalized as a Honduran citizen in 1987.
She now works as a headmistress of the Honduras Korea School. Kang had previously run a private Taekwondo Institute with her husband, now deceased.
Kang was asked by Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa, who was once her Taekwondo student, to represent Honduras to Korea.
Her designation was an expression of friendship to Korea by the Honduran President, diplomats say, while it was also taken as a well-received surprise in Korea as a success story of a Korean immigrant overseas.
skim@koreatimes.co.kr
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yistory@koreatimes.co.kr
