Visit to the Land of Morning Calm

The few Hungarians who visited the Korean Peninsula at the dawn of the 20th century could observe it during a short-lived transitory period. Korea was still formally an independent state, while the encroachments of the Empire of Japan already foreshadowed the impending loss of statehood. It was during this time of transition that Dr Dezső Bozóky (1871–1957), a physician of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, visited Korea aboard SMS Kaiser Franz Josef I, and took a number of photographs that bear evidence to the last days of the Korean Empire. This volume salutes both Dezső Bozóky’s effort and the 30th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Hungary and the Republic of Korea, which took place on 1 February, 1989.