Book Presentation: “Russian–Korean relations. Parallel History”

29 November 2022

On November 29^th, MGIMO University hosted the presentation of the book titled “Russian–Korean relations. Parallel History”. The event was held in a hybrid format: the Russian authors and honored guests in Moscow were communicating via video conferencing with their Korean colleagues who were participating in the parallel presentation of the Korean version of the book.

The Russian-South Korean project to write a collective monograph on the history of Russian-Korean relations from late 19^th century till today was launched in 2019. The research was done in the format of a parallel history, meaning that the teams of leading Russian and South Korean experts independently expressed their opinion on each of the ten specified periods. The final version of the book was published in Russian and Korean, and in the future it might be translated into English. The project was co-organized by the Russian-Korean Society (from the Russian side) and the Korea Foundation (from the Korean side). The book was published in Russian with the support of the MGIMO Endowment.

The presentation was inaugurated by the speeches of the project’s leaders: the MGIMO Rector, the President of the Russian-Korean Society and member of the RAS Anatoly Torkunov, and the Professor Emeritus at Dongguk University Kim Hak-chun. Those present were also addressed by the President of the Korea Foundation Kim Gheewhan, the Director of the First Department of Asia of the Russian MFA Georgiy Zinoviev, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Russia Chang Ho Jin and the Ambassador of Russia to the Republic of Korea Andrey Kulik, followed by the representatives of the research teams of both countries: the President of the Korean Association of Slavic-Eurasian Studies Eom Gu Ho and the Professor at the Department of Diplomacy Alexander Panov. The study done by the researchers was also assessed by the member of the Federation Council, Head of the Inter-Parliamentary Relations Group for Russia and South Korea Olga Epifanova, the Associate Professor at the Department of Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Mongolian Languages Valery Sukhinin, the Professor Emeritus at Hankuk University Kim Hyun Taek, the Professor at Korea University Min Kyung Hyun, and the Professor at Kookmin University Lee Sang Joon.

The solemn ceremony was followed by a buffet reception with Russian and Korean dishes.