A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 32. Kunt Ernő emlékére. (1994)

TANULMÁNYOK - FENDLER Károly: A magyar-koreai kapcsolatok száz éve (1892-1992) (magyar és angol nyelven)

gary. Parallel with them, the official circles, the Austro-Hungarian Government also showed increasing interest in the Far East, specifically in the events in Korea. This fact attributes special importance to the documents of the Monarchy's Embassy in Tokyo, covering about three decades. In this context, let me refer to the fact-which was also pointed out by an Austrian researcher-that there were quite many Hungarians among the Embassy's leaders and diplomatic corps who, similarly to Count Vay, were not always able (or did not want) to disregard the contemporary Hungarian traditions and events whenever they gave evaluation of the Korean situation. As already identified documents of archives show, the Monarchy's embassy in Tokyo gave regular accounts of Korea's internal and foreign policy events and of the great powers' Korea policy from 1884 on. Vienna and Budapest reserved political interests and pronounced "active neutrality" as regards the affair of the Far East enabled it to follow the events and relations there mainly as an observer, a kind of witness. As a result of that interest and familiarity with local political affairs, I have found about 250 reports in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy's archives, running about 1,700-1,800 pages, from the period of 1885-1912. Some less wellknown or even unknown documents have also come to light, dealing with the relationship between Korea and Japan and between Korea and the great powers at the end of the 19th century. The Ambassador's reports closely follow the events in Korea's internal and foreign policy. It is also supported by the statistical analysis of their frequency. The Embassy sent 18 political reports in 1893, 22 in 1894, 10 in 1895, 14 in 1896 and 15 in 1900, whereas only few reports were made in the interim years. The subjects of those reports are also worth mentioning. Ambassador Zaluski, for example, showed keen interest in the stormy developments in the internal affairs of Korea between 1884-1885 and the race of the great powers, mainly Japan, China and Russia for Korea. His successor, Count Condenhove, devoted great attention to what he called the "Korean revolution" in 18941896. In several of his reports and coded cables he referred to the Tonghak movement and peasants' uprising as revolution. With excellent political insight, he depicted the deepening conflicts between Japan and China, and later the outbreak and events of the war. It is also interesting to read the four or five reports that dealt with the assassination of Kim Ok-kyun, its political background and international implications. They are specially valuable sources because Ambassador Condenhove knew Kim Ok-kyun personally and witnessed his activities and life. The Ambassador also gave detailed account of the assassination of Quenn Min and attached the plot diagram of the palace. After the annexation by Japan, reports from the Embassy in Tokyo became substantially scarcer: we only know of five reports from 1911 and two from 1912. I think what gives particular value and relevance to the documents from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy's Embassy in Tokyo covering almost 30 years is that they invariably discussed Korea's internal and international situation, internal political developments and the great powers' Korea policy as an integral whole, in firm consistency. In this context, the analyses and findings about Korea's independence and autonomy deserve special attention. So for example, in his letter to the joint Foreign Minister of the Monarchy, on the subject of recognizing Korea's annexation by Japan, Hungarian Prime Minister, Count Khuen-Héderváry condemned Japan's policy, and recommended that the Monarchy should not hasten to recognize it. The history of Hungarian-Korean relations in the decades before World War I 161