Racism in Korean Pokémon tournaments?

Over the last week I've started hearing tons of stories from non Korean competitors being refused the chance to play in Korean Pokémon vgc and tcg tournaments.

I can't go into too much detail as I wasn't there and have only been hearing the situation from the people who had been there and from news sources in Korea.

Apparently after a number of foreign players has registered to participate, they received a phone call from Pokémon Korea stating that they weren't allowed to play.

This is against the Pokémon international rules of course. The rules currently state that anyone can play I any tournament (I'm paraphrasing a little).

Regardless of that, Pokémon Korea decided to ignore the rules in order to ban foreign players.

Pokémon Korea's argument is that a Korean must represent Korea and that foreigners shouldn't be able to play in a tournament. This is of course petty nationalism.

Many countries have had non native players that represented countries.

Regardless of all that. The players went ahead and went to the tournament. They were told they couldn't play, and recorded video shows that the Korean tournament management had used a number of racial slurs in Korean.

But ultimately after a while they were allowed to play.

Its frustrating to me that this is still a problem here in Korea. This silly false nationalism is stupid and serves no useful purpose other than their own pride.

Even though they were eventually allowed to play. They were told they would receive no prizes or participations token or anything. It's completely silly to Me.

Sources:

http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=243165

http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=243472