Envoys to be kept apart
OFFICIALS hope to keep North and South Korean diplomats from meeting at government-hosted cocktail parties and dinners to avoid tension between the envoys whose nations remain technically at war.
The arrival of four diplomats from Pyongyang on August 31 has prompted SAR officials to draw up guidelines for handling the representatives.
Officials had been told to avoid inviting envoys from both sides to the same function if it was a small event, said a source.
They would have to be invited in turns to separate cocktail parties, receptions or dinners.
But it would be acceptable for them both to be represented at large events, said the source.
South Korean officials, some of whom hope to have contact with their counterparts from the North, will probably be bewildered by the new rules for government functions.
The rules are likely to have been drawn up to accommodate the desires of North Korean officials who usually will only meet a South Korean in groups of two or more.
The delegation from the North has been given the task of opening a consulate, probably in Wan Chai, according to diplomatic analysts.
Beijing in May granted permission for North Korea to establish a mission in the SAR in what analysts believed was a move to draw the Stalinist nation out of isolation and balance its growing relations with Seoul.
South Korean and United States diplomats have raised concerns about the opening of a North Korean consulate in Hong Kong, citing its record of using diplomatic missions for drug trafficking, weapon deals and money laundering.
Britain, while it controlled Hong Kong, rejected repeated overtures from Pyongyang to open a trade office.
Acting consul-general An Jun-gun is said to be a Foreign Ministry official in his mid-50s who has been posted previously to the Middle East.
Two diplomats in the delegation, also from the Foreign Ministry, are said to have expertise in economic affairs.
Mr An is expected to be replaced by another official as consul-general once the mission is established.
North Korea has sold rocket technology to Middle East nations such as Syria and Iran.
