WOMEN ARRESTED IN KOREA UNWILLING TO CONTACT ROC CONSUL|"失蹤"女涉詐騙被捕 駐韓代表處遭疑狀況外

Two Taiwanese women who had went missing in South Korea were later found to have been arrested for committing telecom fraud. After criticism from many quarters saying that Taiwan's representative office in South Korea was clueless about the situation, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee said in an interpellation at the Legislative Yuan that the two women were difficult to find because they used pseudonym and refused to contact their families or the representative office. Two Taiwanese women went missing for over 10 days in South Korea before they were confirmed to have been arrested for committing telecom fraud. Amidst criticism that Taiwan's representative office in South Korea was not proactive enough about the situation, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee said at the Legislative Yuan that the women were difficult to track down because they refused to notify their families and the Taiwan government, and even used pseudonyms. This explanation did not satisfy legislators. ==JOHNNY CHIANG KMT Legislator and DAVID LEE Minister of Foreign Affairs== -So for the first few days you knew nothing. -Our understanding was that the women involved did not want to tell her family or... -So they didn't want the Korean police to notify the ROC. What about our diplomats there? Shouldn't they have been monitoring the media? ==LIU SHIH-FANG DPP Legislator and DAVID LEE Minister of Foreign Affairs== So on February 28th, were there reports in Korean media? You don't know! So as I said, the people in our Korean representative office are very passive when it comes to protecting the safety of our citizens abroad. Lee said that further investigation will be conducted regarding whether the representative office had failed in its duties. Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang said that South Korea did not customarily deport Taiwanese suspects to China, but sentences them to prison in Korea; the prisoners can also request to serve their sentence in Taiwan, but Lee said that confirmation with the South Korean side was necessary. As for whether Taiwan will be able to participate in the World Health Assembly this May, Lee said that it was too early to tell. ==TSAI SHIH-ING DPP Legislator and DAVID LEE Minister of Foreign Affairs== -Are the chances good? -A few days ago, our staff members in Geneva visited high-level officials in the WHO Secretariat expressing our desire to be invited to the annual assembly. The answer we received was that the situation is still unclear. Due to pressure from China, Taiwan was not invited to the World Health Assembly last year until May. Whether the Tsai administration will receive the invitation remains to be seen. Translated by JOHN CHEN 2名我國女子在南韓失聯，最後發現是涉及電信詐騙遭到逮捕，外界批評，我國駐南韓代表處狀況外，外交部長李大維上午到立法院外交會備詢時表示，因為當事人不希望通知家屬與我國代表處，甚至還用假名，所以才不容易掌握。 在南韓失去聯絡十多天的兩位台灣女子，確定涉及電信詐騙罪被南韓警方逮捕，各界質疑我國駐南韓代表處沒有第一時間掌握狀況，外交部長李大維上午在立法院備詢時表示，當事人一開始不願意通知家屬與政府，甚至使用假名，所以難以掌握，不過立委對此很不滿。 ==國民黨立委 江啟臣 vs 外交部長 李大維== 所以前面幾天你們完全不知道 因為我們的瞭解是當事人 她希望不要讓她的家人 不要向 好 當事人希望韓國警方 不要通報中華民國 那我們駐在國 我們要不要去關心當地的輿情 ==民進黨立委 劉世芳 vs 外交部長 李大維== 那2月28日的時候 韓國的媒體出來了沒 你們不知道嘛 所以我剛剛是不是有提到 我們的韓國代表處的這些人員 對於保護我們的國人 在外面的安全 其實是處於被動的狀態 李大維表示外館是否有疏失，未來將會進一步檢視調查，另外法務部次長陳明堂表示過去按照南韓慣例，犯案的我國嫌犯都沒有送到中國，都是在南韓服刑，也可以根據跨國移交受刑人法，申請回台灣服刑。不過李大維表示後續處理還是要和南韓確認。另外我國今年五月是否還能參與WHA世界衛生大會，李大維備詢時表示目前言之過早。 ==民進黨立委 蔡適應 vs 外交部長 李大維== 機率高不高 幾天以前我們駐日內瓦的同仁 曾經去拜會過 WHO秘書處的高級官員 也表達了我們希望 今年能夠援例受邀 參加WHA的年會 那對方給我們的答案是 這個狀況目前還不明朗 去年由於中國施壓，我國一直到5月才收到WHA邀請函，蔡政府今年能否再度受邀參加，備受關注。 記者張志雄 吳嘉堡 台北報導