Did you know that there is a Hungarian hospital in North Korea?

Hungary builds new hospitals, for example, in Vietnam. In 1950, the Communist leadership of the country felt it essential to help their Korean and Chinese comrades fighting against the United States by sending a complete hospital with the crew to the Far East country. Interestingly, the hospital is in operation still today.

Interestingly, the first contact between Hungary and the Korean Kingdom was established at the end of the 19th century. Hungarian travellers and doctors visited the Kingdom before and after the Japanese occupation. American and Soviet troops retook the country from the Japanese forces in the final days of WWII, but the winners of the war could not decide the fate of the Penninsula. Since the negotiations on reunification failed, in 1948, separate governments were formed: the socialist Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north, and the capitalist Republic of Korea in the south.

Hungary, as a country under communist leadership set up diplomatic ties with North-Korea almost immediately and in 1950, the first Hungarian ambassador arrived in Pyongyang. When the Korean war started, Mátyás Rákosi, hated and feared leader of the Hungarian communist regime, offered Hungary’s help and agreed with Soviet leader Stalin and the North Korean leadership that

he would not only send a team of doctors and nurses but a fully functional hospital with 200 beds to the Far East country.

The first crew and the equipment started their long journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway in the summer of 1950 to heal those wounded during the war. By 1951, there were 8 separate medical teams in North Korea and China, all working between horrible circumstances and being continuously threatened by the US air raids. For example, the first equipment sent to North Korea was destroyed by American bombers.