Two draft designs for South Korea’s new passport which will be adopted from 2020 were released by the culture and foreign affairs ministries Monday. The government will choose one of the two by the end of this year after considering public opinion. The design on the left has the Taegeuki and Rose of Sharon symbols, while the other has no national emblems. / Yonhap
Draft designs for a new passport are drawing a heated debate online as to whether the concept and color are appropriate. Observers also raised questions on the necessity to change the design. The culture and the foreign affairs ministries presented the draft designs Monday with two options, one having the Taegeuki (Korean flag) and Rose of Sharon design and the other without any national emblems.
They plan to choose one by the end of this year after considering public opinion. The new passport will begin to be issued from 2020.
After Monday’s disclosure of the drafts, some were skeptical of the first big change in 32 years. There was in particular the issue of the indigo color. The current passport is dark green.
They said the new passport looks like the North Korean passport or represents the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, which uses the color blue to symbolize itself. Some raised suspicion that the color was changed due to the reconciliatory mood with North Korea.
However, the change has been planned since 2007, and the design was selected from entries to a contest held that year. Also there have been requests to change the passport design for over a decade because the dark green cover is out of style and does not reflect Korea’s culture. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but who was in charge in 2007? Roh Moo-hyun a left wing President that current President Moon Jae-in was Chief of Staff for. Based on that fact it is fair for critics to wonder if the passport design was not intended to match North Korea’s?
