The Korean Government Considers Granting an Honorary Citizenship to Manager Guus Hidink.

It is predicted that the Korean national football team manager, Guus Hidink, will be an honorary Korean citizen.

The Ministry of Justice stated on the 16th, "we are considering a way to grant `an honorary citizenship to manager Hidink who contributed to raise the pride of our country."

The current Korean Nationality Act does not have specific provision about the honorary citizenship. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice is studying a scheme to grant the honorary citizenship by making an addendum to the existing provision that `the Justice Minister can grant a citizenship to the person who has done special meritorious services to the Republic of Korea.`

The purpose of this idea is to give manager Guus Hidink a status of a Korean citizen formerly, at least, because there might be a dual citizenship problem unless he gives up his Dutch citizenship.

If an honorary citizenship is granted, the granted person will have `a certificate of citizenship`; however, the Ministry of Justice explains that the person does not have rights and duties as a citizen. It will be same as `an honorary citizenship` granted to foreign people by some local governments.

The Ministry of Justice related official says, "even though there is a public opinion to grant manager Hidink a citizenship, it is impossible unless he is naturalized; therefore, we are considering to grant him an honorary citizenship."

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com