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Hungary–North Korea relations (Korean: 마쟈르-조선민주주의인민공화국 관계) are foreign relations between Hungary and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. Relations between the two countries existed since the Korean War,^[1] but relations have been poor since 1988.^[2]

History

The Second Hungarian Republic recognized the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on November 11, 1948, as the sole legal sovereign entity of the entire Korea. The agreement was signed by Hungarian Foreign Minister László Rajk, and DPRK Foreign Minister Pak Hon-yong; both would be executed by their own governments in the years that followed.^[1]^: 13

Hungarians and North Korean people had their first real interactions at the 1949 World Festival of Youth and Students in Budapest.^[1]^: 14 During the Korean War, the Hungarian government invited orphans and school children from the DPRK to study in Hungary. School children from the DPRK began arriving in Budapest in 1951, where they were accommodated in a villa on Szabadság hegy hill. The villa was renamed the Kim Il-sung Elementary School, where the children studied from DPRK textbooks under DPRK teachers.^[1]^: 25 At that point, no Korean-speakers existed in Hungary, and the first Korean-Hungarian dictionary was not compiled until 1957. Because the Hungarian and DPRK authorities were concerned that the DPRK students were not learning Hungarian well enough, in 1952 the students were sent to normal schools in the area, where their teachers included poet Ágnes Nemes Nagy. Their school building was only used as their dormitory.^[1]^: 28

In 1952, the first university students arrived from the DPRK, and were given generous grants by the Hungarian government, which was the cause of some complaints from Hungarians. The early years of this scheme too were beset with problems: the DPRK students had immense trouble learning Hungarian, they could not adapt to Hungarian food, and one even tried to escape the country.^[1] Nonetheless, by 1956, 500 high school students and 300 university students from the DPRK were studying in Hungary.^[1] ^: 77 Most university students studied at Budapest Technical University.^[1]^: 155

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 caused a split in the DPRK university student population. Some asked to be repatriated,^[1]^: 106 however roughly 200 students joined in the revolution; their war experience proved to be of aid to the Hungarian students, many of whom lacked military training and could not operate the weapons and equipment they captured.^[3] In the aftermath of the revolution, Soviet forces and Hungarian police gathered up the North Korean students—easily distinguished from locals by their appearance—and deported them back to the DPRK, with a handful escaping to Austria and Yugoslavia.^[4]^[1]^: 117–9 In January 1957, North Korean newspapers announced the return by train of 775 students from Hungary, due to the "hard situation" there.^[1]^: 113–4 Some of the students who returned to Kim Il-sung University were reported for sharing news about how the Hungarian people hated their pro-Soviet regime.^[1]^: 115 The DPRK did not send any more students to Hungary.^[1]^: 147

In 1988, Kim Jong-il's brother Kim Pyong-il was assigned to Hungary as the DPRK's ambassador. However, little more than a year later, Hungary would become the first Eastern Bloc nation to open relations with South Korea; in response, the DPRK withdrew Kim from Hungary and sent him to Bulgaria instead.^[5]^[6] They angrily referred to the Hungarian decision as a "betrayal", and then expelled the Hungarian envoy to Pyongyang, Miklós Lengyel.^[7] This led to a downturn in bilateral ties which lasted over a decade-and-a-half; in a 2004 interview with The Korea Herald, then-deputy State Secretary Gábor Szentiványi indicated that his government were interested in improving their relations with the North.^[2] However, as of 2009, the former Hungarian embassy building in Pyongyang remained empty; Budapest's relations with Pyongyang are handled through their embassy in Beijing, though according to Lengyel, who since became Hungary's ambassador to South Korea, there were plans of transferring the responsibility for that relationship to him.^[7]