A Vietnam War veteran hat. - Photo: Captured from online community
HANOI: A Vietnam-focused travel agency has warned tourists against wearing a “Vietnam war veteran hat” when travelling to the country, citing cases of entry denial.
An advisory from a Vietnam travel agency gained attention on South Korean online communities such as DC Inside on Thursday (Feb 20).
The agency reported that a recent traveller wearing a Vietnam war veteran hat was denied entry at the airport.
“A group of tourists wearing the hat was also fined US$3,000 after being stopped by authorities,” it warned.
The agency further cautioned that “wearing the hat on the streets could lead to conflicts with locals”.
The agency included a photo of a hat with the phrase “Vietnam war Hero Korea” as an example.
The hat is typically worn by elderly veterans who served in the Vietnam war and was created to commemorate the contributions of South Korean soldiers.
In South Korea, there are organisations such as the Korean Disabled Veteran’s Association by Agent-Orange in Vietnam war and the Vietnam Veterans Association Korea for those who served in the war.
Commonly referred to as the “Vietnam war” in South Korea, the conflict lasted for 20 years from 1955, pitting the communist North Vietnamese government against the US-backed South Vietnamese forces.
At the request of the United States, South Korea deployed 320,000 troops to support South Vietnam.
The war ended with a North Vietnamese victory, leading to the unification of Vietnam under a socialist republic.
Some online users compared wearing the hat in Vietnam to “a Japanese person carrying a rising sun flag while visiting Dokdo”, the island that has long been a source of tension between Seoul and Tokyo.
A controversy regarding the Vietnam war also emerged in the second season of the hit Netflix series Squid Game released in December.
In one scene, contestant Kang Dae-ho (played by Kang Ha-neul) mentions that his father was a Vietnam war veteran, to which another participant, Park Jung-bae (played by Lee Seo-hwan), replies, “Your dad sounds great.”
The scene drew strong backlash from Vietnamese viewers, with many calling for a boycott of the series. - The Korea Times
[This story was first published by The Korea Times]
