SEOUL: South Korea's efforts to rid itself of a reputation for casual racial discrimination and overbearing ethnic nationalism will come under scrutiny this week from the UN's top expert on racism.
Tasked with assessing racism, xenophobia and related intolerance around the world, UN Special Rapporteur Mutuma Ruteere began a week-long mission to Asia's fourth-largest economy on Monday.
One of Asia's most ethnically homogenous societies, South Korea has a small but rising foreign population which has not always been made to feel welcome.
Some complaints focus on examples of racial insensitivity, such as performers wearing black-face on TV, or recent advertising for a new cigarette brand "This Africa" which featured chimpanzees dressed as a news anchor and a news reporter.
"I think that type of thing is largely down to a lack of knowledge," said Kim Ji-Yoon, director of the Center for Public Opinion and Quantitative Research at the Asan Institute for Policies Studies in Seoul.
"It comes from people who don't really recognise what racism is, or what you should or should not say. We haven't had that education yet," Kim said.
Others voice direct experience of overt discrimination, particularly migrant workers hired as low-paid, unskilled manual labourers.
When Filipina-Korean Jasmine Lee became the first foreign-born member of parliament in 2012, her election victory triggered a vicious, racially-charged online backlash.
As well as meeting labour officials, Ruteere has talks lined up with the foreign, defence, justice, education and maritime ministries.
"He's interested in how Korea's military treats multicultural conscripts, how school textbooks educate children to prevent racism, how foreign workers are being treated... and what kind of rules and laws are in place," a foreign ministry official said.
Ruteere's report on his visit will be handed to the UN Human Rights Council in 2015.
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