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)

developing rapidy. It is also suggested-among else-by the upcoming visit of president Roh Tae-woo in Hungary and by the increasing frequency of high-level contacts. With mutual efforts, it is possible to lay the grounds for Hungarology and Koreanistics and the introduction of language education and country studies today. As there are practically no obstacles to the development of relations between the two countries both short-term and long-term contractual relations are being established in various fields. We should devote due attention to all this future if we really want to achieve stable and well-founded cooperation. The latter can also be promoted by the fact that although both countries are relatively small and geographically distant, both Hungary's and Korea's international importance is larger than their size or potentials-for different reasons, of course. A significant role is also played by round-table conferences and meetings on a variety of subjects since we still know rather little about each other's countries. In the foregoing I tried to give a brief overview of the 100-150 years preceding the present Hungarian-Korean relations, the way Korea's image has developed in Hungary-mainly the period before 1945. Unfortunately, because of the great geographical distance, the different historic developments and political interests, this process remained rather peripherical for both countries, both cultures in the decades before 1945 although it treasures some interesting and still noteworty elements and facts. In this respect I refer of all to some cultural events but I mainly consider it important to explore and process the sources in Austro-Hungarian and Hungarian archives. I cannot rule out that a few random reports may be found in the Hungarian archieves of Catholic and Protestant missionaries as well. The same can be said about the legacies of Hungarian travellers and geographers from the end of the last, beginning of this century. And as I mentioned in the introduction, the picture of the preceding events of Hungarian-Korean relations can be complete only if my Korean colleagues also explore their respective sources.

10 10 For example: Kho Songmoo's article in Hangul Sesosik, Issue No. 170-171, 1986. 164