Mutual Appreciation

When I last went to the Busan Immigration Office, we were told that my F2 Visa could only be extended until August of this year, which was when my passport expired. After we won our legal case against the British Government, there was little reason to extend my F2 and I certainly had no desire to renew my passport using the Embassy in Seoul, which I now have a complete lack of trust in.

As the date of our departure nears, I happened to be checking my passport when I noticed that I had no Korean immigration stamp in it for my last extension, and after our troubles with the British immigration authorities, I was anxious to ensure that there were no unexpected complications during my departure, or indeed next time we returned to this country. In fact, when we bought tickets to return to England two returns on a special offer worked out at the same price as two singles, so we booked a return in January 2009.

A phone helpline advised us to get some paperwork from the local District Office and go to the Immigration Office, where surprisingly the unstamped passport was not at issue, and in fact there was an unexpected offer to extend my F2 visa for another year, expiring passport notwithstanding. This didn't really seem to be consistent with the earlier experience but I wasn't complaining. In another revelation we were also told there was no cost for this multiple re-entry visa, which seemed unlikely, considering that we'd paid over £500 (about 994,000 won) for the same thing from the British Government. My wife was rather taken aback by this but the immigration official was quite certain - tapping away and a section of her rulebook which being in Korean I just had to assume represented the relevant guideline. This is where things got more interesting.

Apparently, Korea has a reciprocal agreement with Britain covering these visas, or at least, it thinks it does, under which Koreans should be afforded the same treatment and conditions by the UK immigration authorities as British people in Korea, so my wife related the £500 costs and one or two other aspects of her visa conditions. Cue a serious look from the Korean official and an announcement that they were going 'to report this'.

I felt that I was also be looked at for some kind of explanation of the inequitable treatment of Koreans by my Government, when compared to the entirely fair and understanding way I had been treated by my hosts. But I had none. Unfortunately my Korean is nowhere near the level of being able to explain that the British Government's overseas embassies operate in an institutionally racist way as a matter of Government policy, the goal of which is to keep out as many foreigners as possible while still vaguely appearing to comply with European Human Rights legislation. So I had to shrug my shoulders at the official and say '나쁜 정부' (bad Government), which doesn't nearly do things justice and is a poor substitute for 'institutional racism', the Korean for which I really ought to learn. I noticed a poster hanging on the wall 'Human Rights Violation Hotline'. Ironic.

Anyway, I get my new extended visa in a week and bizarrely, if we can bring a baby with us next time they could extend it for longer than normal. I couldn't tell if the immigration official was joking or not - something to worry about then.

Meanwhile, I'd like to indulge in the fantasy that the way my Korean wife was interrogated and summarily refused entry into the UK by the British Embassy might provoke a minor diplomatic incident behind the scenes of 'the strong relationship between our two countries', because I've often wondered how the British Government and its people would feel if other countries started to refuse entry to British citizens were the roles to be reversed. But somehow, I expect there's just been a misunderstanding in Korea - the UK immigration authorities will continue to harass foreigners applying for visas as a matter of policy, while the Korean immigration authorities labour under the illusion that their treatment of people in my position will be reciprocated back home with Korean citizens (it won't).

The Uniform Motion of Folly

South Korea is a modern society, but it's also technically still at war with its neighbour to the North, so you have to get used to the military presence which seeps into one of this country's main themes, which is of course 24-hour shopping. The resulting fusion of retail and military means that this could be the only country in the world where it appears that retail shopping bags from designer stores are apparently part of the army uniform - and walking around the streets you certainly see a lot of military uniforms of all kinds.



Often, the uniforms come with a girl, and go about their shopping oblivious to the others around them, but it does lead to some slightly more surreal situations. The most notable of which during my time here was probably when, after waiting for five minutes in the foyer of a movie theatre with a bunch of other civilians and a group of about fifteen male navy cadets, a roughly similar size group of female cadets entered at the opposite end, apparently coincidentally. There followed by a few moments of embarrassed stand-off across the foyer before finally one of the females saluted and before you knew where you were there were two approximate lines of young Korean people smartly saluting one-another while the civilians in the middle watched in somewhat bemused silence. Actually, it was somehow very Korean and as the only foreigner there I felt like I was intruding on a private family moment, which I suppose I was. I found myself wishing I had a flag.

Now at the time of the navy saluting incident, I couldn't help but notice that the men all had briefcases with them, and more to the point, when I came to think about it, didn't those I saw walking around the street normally have them too? I started paying more attention and sure enough, the observation seemed to hold true.

Yesterday I was eating on the second floor of a restaurant in the largely pedestrianised retail centre of Nampodong when an army truck suddenly rolled by as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Random incident - but as I watched to see if anything more substantial would advance down the street - because in Korea you just never know - I once again noticed a succession of navy men and their briefcases passing by. Which got me onto this subject again, and now it's bugging me because nobody seems to know why they always seem to be carrying briefcases and what on Earth is in them.

I'm sure there's a very simple explanation but I have to know...