Hungary and Korea to celebrate relations

Hungarian First Secretary and Consul Laszlo Borocz. By Park Sun-young

Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Hungary and Korea, and the Hungarian Embassy in Seoul is gearing up for the occasion.

“We’re currently planning some special events to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our diplomatic relations,” said Laszlo Borocz, first secretary and consul at the Hungarian Embassy in Korea.

One of the events planned is the performance of the Liszt Academy Orchestra in August next year. The Korean Liszt Society is planning the first-ever Korean Liszt Piano Competition and Liszt Academy professors might participate in the jury, according to Borocz.

The other major event is inviting Erno Rubik, the inventor of the famous Rubik’s Cube, to Korea.

“I heard that the Rubik’s Cube is also quite popular in Korea, but most people don’t know that its creator is Hungarian,” he said.

The Hungarian diplomat, who arrived in Seoul last year and will return to Budapest next May, has unusually close ties to Korea.

While at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, he focused on Korea’s relations with post-communist countries in Europe.

In 1989, Borocz visited the Hungarian Embassy in Pyongyang, North Korea, on a three-month training course as a scholar dispatched by the Hungarian Foreign Ministry.

The year 1989, when diplomatic relations between Hungary and South Korea were established, is particularly memorable for Borocz.

“Coincidentally, I arrived in Pyongyang in September 1989 and I can say I was treated like an enemy there because Hungary was the first East European country that recognized South Korea,” he recalled.

“I was even rejected by the university in Pyongyang that I was supposed to attend and I had to spend most of my time inside the embassy watching TV.”

Hungary’s relations with North Korea have been kept at a low profile since 1989.

Both ambassadors were called home and relations have continued at the charge d’affaires level, according to Borocz.

The Hungarian Embassy in Pyongyang was closed in 1999 for financial reasons. The North Korean Embassy in Budapest was also closed that year.

Borocz confesses to being a keen Koreaphile.

“I’m much interested in not only Korean language, but also its culture and history. So I plan to learn as much as I can during the rest of my stay in Seoul,” he said.

Though personnel exchanges between Hungary and Korea are not that active yet, they will increase in the coming years, Borocz forecast.

As a positive sign, study exchange programs between schools in Hungary and Korea are also on the rise.

“Student exchange is particularly important in my opinion as students who studied in Hungary can promote and advance the relationship between Hungary and their respective countries when they return home,” Borocz said.

By Park Sun-young Staff Reporter[spark0320@joongang.co.kr]