Based on the perspective of pragmatic empathy and de-empathy, this study aims to explore similarities and differences of strategies and emotional models of the diplomatic refusal speech act between China and South Korea. Moreover, the study explains the motivations of the differences in emotional models from the perspective of cultural differences, diplomatic environment, and interpersonal rapport orientation. The results indicate that foreign ministry spokespersons of China and South Korea seldom use direct refusal strategies and for the sake of face-saving, tend to implement indirect strategies. However, there are differences in specific strategies. When implementing refusal speech acts, both parties prefer to use the pragmatic empathy model. Compared with its Chinese counterparts, the empathy models adopted by South Korean spokespersons are significantly higher than that of the de-empathy models. Suggestions are offered for Korean refusal speech act education from three aspects: pragmatic and cultural factors, indirect refusal techniques, and the use of corpus.