South Korea

Budapest-Seoul direct flights resume three times a week

seoul korea

From 27 March, LOT flights between Budapest and Seoul will resume three times a week, says Airportal.hu.

From the start of the summer schedule, the Polish airline’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft will operate flights from Budapest to Seoul on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Flights will take off from Ferihegy at 12:25 local time and arrive in the South Korean capital at 6:05am the following morning.

Return flights depart from Incheon International Airport at 7:40 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and land at Ferihegy at 13:25.

The scheduled flight time to Seoul is 10 hours 40 minutes and two hours more on the return journey.

This restores the pre-epidemic schedule and, more importantly, the route will again be operated by a Budapest-based Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.

According to the data uploaded to the booking system,

the airline plans to operate three flights per week until the end of the summer schedule, with two flights per week currently scheduled for the winter season.

As you know, the Polish airline launched

its three-times-weekly direct service between Budapest and Seoul in September 2019.

Following the outbreak of the coronavirus in March 2020, LOT suspended the flight, but from 20 July 2020 it was restarted with a Warsaw-based aircraft once a week, and has since then been operating a stable service on Mondays.

Squid Game Hungary Netflix Music Success
Read alsoA Hungarian company made a Squid Game inspired video – take a look!

EBRD supports Solus copper foil plant in Hungary

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Monday announced a 28 million dollar loan for the construction of a plant by South Korea’s Solus Advanced Materials that will make copper foil for electric vehicle batteries.

The plant, in Tatabánya, in northwest Hungary, will be the first of its kind in Europe, the EBRD said. It will support the move to electro-mobility and advance the European Union toward its goal of achieving a climate-neutral economy, while contributing to the circular economy as it relies fully on scrap copper for its feedstock, the EBRD said.

“We fully support Solus Advanced Materials’ growth and its contribution to Hungary’s becoming a hub for the European EV battery industry,”

EBRD Head of Industries Frederic Lucenet said.

To date, the EBRD has invested almost 3.3 billion euros in 192 projects in Hungary.

Car industry
Read alsoProduction starts of first electric car manufactured in Hungary

More investments came from the East to Hungary in 2021 than from the West

Péter Szijjártó happy Korea Seoul
Hungary broke “two great, investment-related records” last year despite negative developments in the global economy, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Facebook on Wednesday.
 
Szijjártó said that agreements had been signed on FDI totalling an unprecedented 1,886 billion forints (EUR 5.3bn) during the year. He added that the Hungarian government was providing 270 billion forints in grants to aid those projects.
 
Last year also saw the launch of the greatest greenfield development ever made in Hungary, with South Korea’s SK Innovation building a battery plant worth 680 billion forints, the minister said, adding that
 
altogether eight projects worth over 100 million euros were launched last year, including schemes by South Korean Eco Pro, and Turkey’s Sisecam.
 
 
Szijjártó pointed to a “significant increase in the weight of the East in the global economy”, and he said the Hungarian government had launched its strategy of Eastern opening in 2010 “just in time”. Thanks to the strategy,
 
“we often snatch projects by large Eastern companies before bigger and stronger western European countries”,
 
he said.
 
Fully
 
60 percent of Hungary’s foreign investment came from the East last year,
 
with the list of investors led by South Korea, he said. German businesses, however, “continue to have a good time” in Hungary, having seen through 24 out of a total 96 development projects, he added.
Russia Hungary Moscow
Read alsoMinister: Russia is one of the main targets of foreign investment of Hungarian companies

A Hungarian company made a Squid Game inspired video – take a look!

Squid Game Hungary Netflix Music Success

Can you guess which scene they “reenacted”?

Many of us still remember when Parasite (2019) became one of the most talked-about South Korean movies. The Oscar-winning movie was directed by Bong Joon Ho and written by Bong Joon Ho and Jin-won Han. The categories in which the movie was awarded were best film, best director, best screenplay, and best international film.

It seems like the world did not have to wait for long before another South Korean creation received worldwide praise and popularity. Squid Game, created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, gained worldwide popularity in 2021. While some viewers disliked some disturbing scenes, the vast majority of the survival drama’s audience saw further than what was on the screen. They saw an ideology, the psychology of the characters, and much more in what was in front of them.

No wonder that a record 111 million households watched at least part of the Netflix series, and the streaming site was rumoured to generate an estimated $891.1 million in value for the company.

Squid Game Hungary Netflix Music Success
Read alsoHungarian ties of Squid Game, Netflix’s big hit – VIDEO

Unfortunately, the series led to some tragic events. A North Korean teenager was sentenced to death by a firing squad as per the article of Radio Free Asia. The student allegedly faced the death penalty for smuggling Squid Game on a USB from China to North Korea.

The 14-year-old student was said to be selling digital copies of the series. A fellow student, who bought the series, was sentenced to prison, while six others, who simply watched Squid Game, have to spend five years doing hard labour. Some teachers and administrators of the school were fired and sent to work in mines.

What happened in Hungary after Squid Game became popular is the complete opposite of the aforementioned events. A Hungarian glass processing company in Szeged got inspired by episode seven and explained how people can differentiate between regular glass and tempered glass.

CE Glass is one of the most modern glass factories in Central Europe. The vast majority of the company’s employees are Squid Game fans, so choosing a scene that related to their profession was a given. The “scene” the company presented was planned with precaution, and they do not recommend reenacting any of the scenes from the series.

The company’s video analyses the scene in which the players had to jump on glass. The video explains how someone can differentiate between regular glass and tempered glass. The goal was not to promote the series but rather to share information with their viewers. But how exactly can one see the difference?

There are special methods, of course. But there is one very simple way to find out. If a glass ball is dropped on regular glass, it has a “thinner” sound. The sound of the tempered glass, on the other hand, is a deeper sound. Another major difference is that a 6-millimetre float glass breaks easily, while tempered glass can endure the weight of 80 kilograms without breaking.

Hungarian movie India
Read alsoHungarian movie gets Bollywood remake – VIDEOS

V4-Korea research cooperation signed in Budapest

Orban-Korea-Budapest

Minister of Innovation and Technology László Palkovics, South Korea’s deputy minister at the science and ICT ministry Lee Tai-hee and ambassadors of the Visegrád Group countries signed an agreement on cooperation in research and development in Budapest on Thursday, the ministry said.

During a South Korean presidential visit in Budapest in early November, the sides announced that the V4 and Korea were planning to improve knowledge-based links, the ministry added.

Under the agreement signed by the ministries, a V4-Korea programme for basic research will be launched. Hungary plans to invite new applications for support to bilateral research and development projects with South Korea.

Korean investments further strengthen Hungary’s role in vehicle production, the ministry said. Hungary has the second largest battery production capacity in Europe thanks to the presence of Korean companies that are market leaders in electric car manufacturing. The trust demonstrated by South Korean companies in Hungary is expected to result in the creation of further jobs in such sectors as digitalisation, the health and defence industries, the ministry added.

aircraft travel flight
Read alsoNumber of direct flights between Budapest and Seoul to rise

Minister: government’s strategy of opening up to the East a “success story”

szijjártó
All central banks must promote and support changes aimed at making the economy “green and digital”, National Bank of Hungary governor György Matolcsy said on Thursday, opening a conference held online under the auspices of the Eurasia Forum.
 
The conference, attended by participants from South Korea, China, Singapore, the UK, Norway and Poland focuses on ways central banks can support those changes, Matolcsy said, adding that a mix of Asian and Western models was needed because “there is no single solution”. Societies and economies turning digital, carbon-dioxide-free and more open is “a challenge and an opportunity at the same time”, he said. The opportunities can be harnessed by expanding partnerships “across Eurasia and beyond”, he added.

Balanced and sustainable economic growth requires
 
“a new kind of balance”
 
in the public finances, which required the coordination and integration of new technologies, he said, adding that welfare structures also required a stable and sustainable equilibrium.

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó noted the
 
“fundamental change” in ties between East and West caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
 
The health systems of strong and rich countries were severely strained, global trade suffered a 5 percent recession, global investments plummeted by 42 percent, and over 110 million people lost their jobs, he said. By now, however, the “East” has seen rapid development and has closed the gap with Western countries in terms of digital development, he said.
 
Hungary is a primary target for Chinese investments in Central Europe!


Eastern countries currently have
 
similar financial resources as the West,
 
Szijjártó said, adding that while 50 years ago 80 percent of global investments were financed from Western funds, now the ratio of Eastern investors was 70 percent. He added that 50 years ago the West used to head global exports with 52 percent, but that ratio has now dropped to 46 percent, while exports from the East account for 44 percent.

Hungary considers the development of the East as an opportunity, and
 
“supports free and fair global trade”,
 
Szijjártó said. “Rather than seeking a new Cold War, partnerships should be built,” the minister said, calling the Hungarian government’s strategy of opening up to the East a “success story” in which exports to countries involved had increased by 24 percent and trade turnover approaching 30 percent.

Szijjártó called for cooperation “based on mutual respect and trust” in ties between Europe and Asia, adding that “bridges must be built” within the EU as well.

    Liu Zhenmin, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, said that central banks could help stabilise money markets through their monetary policy, but economic reconstruction required difficult decisions from the national banks.
date
Read alsoHungarian dating app enters foreign market

South Korean president advocates closer ties with Visegrád Group

Orban-Korea-Budapest
Cooperation between the Visegrád Group and the Republic of Korea is gaining in intensity, and the political leaders of the five countries are committed to developing even closer ties, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in Budapest on Thursday.
 
With their open approach, the leaders of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have demonstrated the strength of V4 cooperation, the president told a press conference after their summit meeting in the Hungarian capital.

Moon Jae-in highlighted plenty of similarities between the Visegrád region and South Korea, including rapid transition to democracy and dynamic economic development after the Cold War.

He praised smooth V4-Korea relations, adding that the region is an
 
important trading partner for South Korea and a major destination for Korean investors.
 
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stressed the need of close cooperation, especially in the field of innovative technologies. He said the summiteers had also discussed the climate crisis and soaring energy prices.
 
Number of direct flights between Budapest and Seoul to rise


Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis called South Korea a major trading partner for the Visegrad group. He said that developing ties with South Korea may help Europe to become more competitive in the global economy.

Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger said that partnership, cooperation and friendship between nations are especially important now that the world is facing major health, economic and energy challenges. South Korea and the V4 countries share plenty of values, including democracy, a free market and the rule of law, he said.
Budapest-Korea-Orbán
Read alsoBreaking – Korea to set up a large university campus in Budapest

Number of direct flights between Budapest and Seoul to rise

aircraft travel flight
Hungary and the Republic of Korea have signed agreements on expanding the number of direct flights between their capitals, Hungarian food exports and Korean language teaching in Hungary, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign affairs and trade minister, said after a Visegrád Group-South Korea summit in Budapest on Thursday.
 
Under the new agreements, the single weekly flight between Budapest and Seoul will be increased to two flights per week from the beginning of next year, Szijjártó told reporters.

The minister also underlined the importance of Hungarian food exports to the two countries’ economic ties, noting that Hungarian exports had recently been affected by the bird flu and African swine fever (ASF). But South Korea is again allowing imports of poultry produce from Hungary thanks to the eradication of bird flu, Szijjártó said. Also, Hungary is one of four European countries in talks on regionalisation with South Korea, under which exports of animals would only be banned from regions in which they are affected by outbreaks, rather than from whole countries, he said. Hungary has asked its Korean partners to conclude these talks as quickly as possible, he added.

An agreement has also been signed on the
 
expansion of Korean language teaching in Hungary.
 
Korean is currently taught at three secondary schools and two universities, but the two countries have agreed that South Korea will send more language teachers to Hungary so that more schools and universities can add Korean language and Korean studies to their curriculums, Szijjarto said.
 
Cargo flights to operate between Hungary and South Korea twice a week


The eight agreements signed between the two countries on Wednesday will
 
boost bilateral economic cooperation in the areas of the digital economy and the pharmaceutical industry,
 
Szijjártó said. An agreement was also signed between Hungary and South Korea’s investment promotion agencies and export finance banks on cooperation in trade and investment, he added.
Budapest-Korea-Orbán
Read alsoBreaking – Korea to set up a large university campus in Budapest

High-speed railway between Budapest and Warsaw to cut travel time from 12 to 5 hours

railway frankfurt high speed
Trade turnover between the Visegrád Group (V4) countries and South Korea grew by 40 percent over the past five years, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Thursday, expressing hope that their cooperation could soon expand to the areas of science and technology as well.
 
Addressing a joint press conference of the V4 leaders and South Korean President Moon Jae-in after their summit in Budapest, Orbán said the central European economies had “strong years behind them” and good prospects, while South Korea was “a world champion” in economic growth and technological development.
 
The prime minister referred to the summit as “a meeting of five success stories”.
 
Trade turnover between the V4 and South Korea even increased “in the black year for the global economy that was 2020”, reaching 20 billion US dollars for the first time, Orban said.

South Korea has a GDP of 1,600 billion dollars, while the V4 have a combined GDP of 1,100 billion dollars, Orbán noted. “If we were one country, then the V4, like Korea, could be a member of the G20,” he said.
 
Breaking – Korea to set up a large university campus in Budapest


Orbán said the reason behind the timing of Thursday’s summit was that all five countries believed that a new global economic order was taking shape and there was fierce competition for production capacities given that
 
after the pandemic, factories were not being reopened in the same countries where they had closed.
 
Most of those capacities are being taken elsewhere, “and we, the V4 have entered this competition and want to attract as big a share as possible of global investments”, Orbán said. South Korea is known for being a leader in innovation and the V4 want to take advantage of the emerging new era of the global economy, he added.

Orbán said the V4 leaders had asked Moon to
 
keep an eye on Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia’s biggest joint project that was the construction of the high-speed rail line connecting their capitals.
 
The 800 km line will cut travel time between Budapest and Warsaw from 12 hours to five, he said, and expressed hope that the project would attract the interest of South Korea’s industrial sector.

He said the V4 were hopeful that their cooperation with South Korea could expand beyond the economy to the areas of science and technology as well.

Orbán said it was “an honour” for the V4 that the South Korean president had joined their summit. “This is especially so for Hungarians because we see our peoples as being related,” he said. He noted that
 
Hungary first established diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Korea in 1892.
 
Another unique aspect of the talks, Orban said, was that they had welcomed a president who himself had fought for freedom and democracy. Thursday’s talks also touched on global issues like climate policy and the situation in Afghanistan, Orbán said.
Orbán-Korea
Read alsoPM Orbán admires the success story of South Korea

Cargo flights to operate between Hungary and South Korea twice a week

airplane flight
South Korean companies can expect completely hassle-free administration during investment and trading operations in Hungary thanks to a recent agreement between the investment promotion agencies of the two countries, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade said on Wednesday.
 
Addressing a business forum of the Visegrád Group and the Republic of Korea, Péter Szijjártó said that Hungary had taken measures to guarantee smooth trading and an attractive investment environment. Hungary’s Eximbank has opened a 1.4 billion dollar credit line to support cooperation and the government agency in charge of investment promotion guarantees the highest cash support and tax-breaks allowed by law to all South Korean investors, he said. The combined support could reach half of the value of the investment, he added.

Companies from South Korea bring cutting-edge technology to Hungary which contributes to the Hungarian economy’s switch to a higher level of development, Szijjártó said.
 
The government has shortened administrative deadlines
 
on investment projects thanks to its priority investments scheme, Szijjártó said.

In line with an agreement signed with the Korean airline company, cargo flights operate between Hungary and South Korea twice a week, he said.

On the sidelines of the forum, Szijjártó and South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-Yong signed an agreement on cooperation between the two countries’ diplomacy academies.
Budapest-Korea-Orbán
Read alsoBreaking – Korea to set up a large university campus in Budapest

Breaking – Korea to set up a large university campus in Budapest

Budapest-Korea-Orbán

Negotiations on setting up a large Korean university campus in Budapest have begun, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Wednesday.

Addressing the opening of a V4-Korea Business Forum in Budapest, Orbán said that the existing good and friendly relations between Hungary and the Republic of South Korea would be raised to a strategic level and economic relations would be expanded to include science, research and education. The wider and deeper cooperation South Korea develops with the European Union, the Visegrád Group and Hungary, the sooner Europe can regain its competitiveness in the global economy, he said.

Bilateral trade between South Korea and Hungary has grown tenfold over the past twenty years, showing the success of economic relations, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Wednesday, after talks with a delegation of South Korean business leaders in Budapest. Noting South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Hungary, Szijjártó said economic relations had gained momentum since the last visit by a South Korean president to Hungary in 2001.

Trade volume reached 4.5 billion dollars last year and is expected to achieve new records in 2021,

he said.

PM Orbán in talks with Salvini, Morawiecki on new EU political group

“But it is even more important that Hungary is high up on the list of European investment destinations of South Korean companies,” he said, noting that the country gave the fourth largest group of investors in Hungary. South Korean companies are leading the world’s electric car market and the manufacturing of batteries for those cars. Their investments are turning Hungary into

“a flagship of the electric car industry,”

he said.

Bilateral ties between South Korea and Hungary offer ample opportunities, President János Áder told a press conference after talks with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in on Wednesday. The volume of South Korean investments in Hungary has exceeded 5 billion US dollars, making the country one of the most important investors in Hungary, Ader said, noting that South Korea replaced Germany as the top investor in Hungary in 2019.

At the United Nations COP26 climate summit held earlier this week in Glasgow, it became clear that the two countries have similar climate goals too, Ader said. They aim to become carbon neutral by 2050, and agree that that goal is impossible to fulfil without nuclear energy, he said. Áder pointed out, at the same time, that achieving climate neutrality required further efforts and developments which gave the two countries more opportunities for scientific, technological and economic cooperation.

 Moon, who is the first Korean head of state to visit Hungary in the last 20 years,

said the two countries worked to elevate their bilateral ties to a strategic partnership.

Ship collision – S Korea President Moon pays tribute to victims in Budapest

He noted that bilateral trade turnover reached a record high last year in spite of the pandemic. Moon said that because South Korea was investing in innovative areas in Hungary like the electric vehicle and battery sectors, there was more room for them to expand their ties. He thanked Hungary for the help it provided after a deadly boat collision on the River Danube which took the lives of many South Korean tourists in 2019 and for erecting a memorial to the victims. Moon spoke highly of Hungary’s history of having been

the first country in the region to establish diplomatic relations with South Korea

and noted that Korea will also be present at a meeting of the Visegrad Group countries on Thursday. He also touched on the importance of the dialogue between the two Koreas and thanked Hungary for its support in this area.

tourism-hungary-budapest-spring hungarian government
Read alsoBudapest is the most popular travel destination in the world!

Ship collision – S Korea President Moon pays tribute to victims in Budapest

Korea-ship-collision
South Korean President Moon Jae-in paid tribute to the victims of the deadly boat collision on the River Danube which took the lives of many South Korean tourists in May 2019 at the memorial of the disaster in Budapest on Tuesday.
 
The Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableany sightseeing boat which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. One of the bodies has not been recovered.

Moon, who
 
arrived for an official visit to Hungary on Tuesday,
 
was joined at the memorial at Margaret Bridge by Finance Minister Mihaly Varga.

A group of Korean nationals residing in Hungary was also present and greeted Moon and his wife. The Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn was charged with fatal negligence and failing to provide assistance to persons in danger in connection with the collision in November 2019.
 
 
 
Here is a video about what happened on that tragic May evening:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh3CEGtYswA
Danube ship collision South Korea
Read alsoHungary marks anniversary of Danube boat disaster – PHOTOS

Number of flights to double between Budapest and Seoul from November!

aircraft travel flight
South Korean President Moon Jae-in is visiting Hungary in November and the two countries are scheduled to sign an agreement on raising relations to a strategic level, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Paris on Wednesday. The official visit will be the first by a Korean head of state in the last 20 years.
 
After talks with South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong, Szijjártó said that agreements on health care, culture and diplomatic training are also expected to be signed during the presidential visit. Hungary will be among the first five countries South Korea is signing strategic agreements with, he added.

South Korean companies form the fourth largest investor community in Hungary, while the most significant greenfield investment ever made in Hungary has been made by one among them, he said. “It is mostly thanks to investments by South Korean companies that Hungary has become one of the European hubs for the car industry’s revolutionary renewal,” he added. As a result, Hungary is currently in
 
fifth place among exporters of batteries for electric vehicles,
 
he said.

Szijjártó also met minister of trade Yeo Han-koo. The government is currently in talks with 14 South Korean companies regarding further Hungarian investments, he said, adding that the state has provided support for investments by 31 South Korean companies in the past six years.
 
 
Even last year, which was considered a “black year”, the volume of bilateral trade grew by 28 percent, and it is expected to be 26 percent up this year.
 
Air transport between the two countries has been restored and the number of services between Budapest and Seoul will increase from one to two each week from November.
 
“The way Hungarian-Korean relations developed in recent years is one of the most obvious proofs of the success of our strategy of opening to the East,” he said.
Hospital Hungary
Read alsoHungary to develop healthcare from the 183 million EUR loan of the Asian investment bank

Hungary facilitates entry rules from non-EU countries!

Travelling by plane to Hungary has been facilitated for countries outside the European Union. In order to enter the country, no immunity card is needed, only a certificate of a negative PCR test. Thanks to the newly introduced ease of travel restrictions, a further boom in tourism can be expected.

A freshly introduced government decree allows easier entry into Hungary compared to the previous epidemiological regulations – reported by the Hungarian news portal Turizmus.com.

So far, travelling by plane to Hungary from countries outside the European Union was not possible without an immunity certificate (Hungarian or foreign immunity card based on bilateral agreement or EU digital Covid certificate). However, thanks to the newly introduced government decree, which is in effect since 7th August, entering Hungary has been facilitated to travellers arriving from these countries as well.

The only requirement is a certificate of a negative PCR test result, not older than 72 hours, issued in English or Hungarian in one of the following countries:

  • Member States of the European Union or candidate countries for membership of the European Union
  • member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
  • member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
  • Russian Federation
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Bahrain
  • countries specified in a decree based on the agreement of the Minister responsible for foreign policy and the Minister responsible for public security.

The new regulation concerns important sending markets like Britain, the US, Canada, Israel, Japan or South Korea as NATO and OECD members.

As we previously reported, since 23rd June, Hungary could be entered from six majority neighbouring countries – Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia – at its land and water borders, except for Ukraine. However, based on the newly introduced decree, unrestricted entry has come to effect from Ukraine as well.

Thus, it is now possible to enter the territory of Hungary without restriction from all neighbouring countries – except by plane – for which neither a security certificate nor a negative PCR test is required.

Foreigners arriving in Hungary can visit accommodations, restaurants and tourist attractions without an immunity certificate.

Hungary is one of the safest countries in Europe, thanks to which, in addition to domestic tourism, the revival of inbound tourism is also expected in the short term. Based on the data registered in June, the recovery has already started. As Turizmusonline reports, the number of international guests increased by 86% and

the number of guest nights spent by foreign visitors has doubled compared to June 2020.

Numerically, this means 84,000 international guests having spent 222,000 nights in Hungary. Most of the guests stayed in a hotel; the number of nights spent there increased almost 2.5x compared to June 2020. The increase was the largest in the case of Budapest (more than 6x).

As far as domestic tourism is concerned, the number of guests reached 444,000, showing an increase of 42%, and the number of guest nights spent was 1107 thousand by which an increase of 51% could be experienced. 66% of the nights were spent in hotels, followed by boarding houses and campsites on the list of the most preferred accommodation types. The most popular tourist region was Lake Balaton, where one-third of domestic guest nights were registered.

Read alsoHungarian tourism is picking up again!

Memorial to victims of Danube boat collision inaugurated

Memorial to victims of Danube boat collision inaugurated

A memorial to victims of the deadly boat collision on the River Danube which took the lives of many South Korean tourists was inaugurated on Monday at Margaret Bridge, marking the second anniversary of the disaster.

The Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableany sightseeing boat which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died. One of the bodies has not been recovered.

At the event, Korea’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Choi Jongmoon expressed thanks to the Hungarian government, the authorities and the Hungarian people for their efforts to find the victims, and for the many prayers for the victims.

In the recent period, the pandemic prevented victims’ family members from visiting the sight, which has caused them added sorrow, he said.

Choi expressed hope that a court procedure launched in connection with the collision would bring them comfort, and that after the pandemic they would be able to travel to Budapest for the third anniversary.

Choi said it was important to find the body of the tourist who was not recovered so that the remains may be returned to the family.

Foreign Ministry state secretary Levente Magyar said

the tragedy had not caused any disruptions in relations between the two countries but had rather deepened them further to the point of friendship.

He said the disaster had shocked all Hungarians, and he praised the “heroic efforts” of those involved in the rescue operations and the search for bodies.

He said the river disaster had been unprecedented in Hungary. The fact that the majority of victims were Korean guests made it especially painful, he added. He expressed his sympathy on behalf of the Hungarian government to the victims’ families and friends.

Engraved on the memorial, a seven-by-two metre granite block, are the names of the victims.

Danube ship collision South Korea
Read alsoHungary marks anniversary of Danube boat disaster – PHOTOS

Hungary marks anniversary of Danube boat disaster – PHOTOS

Danube ship collision South Korea

With the tolling of a bell and a wreath lowered into the water, Hungary marked the second anniversary on Saturday of a Budapest boat accident which killed 27 people, mostly South Korean tourists, in the worst river accident on the Danube in decades.

The 135-metre (443 ft) Swiss river cruiser Viking Sigyn hit a 27-metre (88 ft) tourist boat called Mermaid, causing it to capsize and sink under a bridge during heavy rain on the evening of May 29, 2019.

“It is still very strange to be here,”

said Zsolt Sógor, a legal representative of the company that owned the Mermaid. “I am here because there are many for whom this day opens deep wounds.”

Danube ship collision South Korea
Balázs Mohai/MTI

After a sailor lowered the wreath into the river from a boat, those on board threw flowers into the water to remember the victims at the commemoration event, led by the Hungarian Ecumenical Church.

Danube ship collision South Korea
Balázs Mohai/MTI

Of 33 passengers and two crew members,

only seven Korean passengers survived.

One South Korean tourist who was onboard remains missing.

Danube ship collision South Korea
Balázs Mohai/MTI

The survivors are due to give testimony at the next hearing of the trial, which began more than a year ago, on Sept. 21, Sogor said.

In November 2019, Hungarian prosecutors charged the 64-year-old Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn, identified as C. Yuriy from Odessa, with

misconduct leading to mass casualties and 35 counts of failing to provide help.

His lawyers have said he was devastated but did nothing wrong. The captain could face between two and 11 years in prison if he is found guilty. It came to light the day before yesterday that Mr Yuriy sailed without radar on the evening of the accident.

Balázs Mohai/MTI

A verdict is expected early next year.

South Korean ambassador: Memorial to victims of Danube boat collision ‘important symbol’

Hungary tragedy South Korea

A memorial to victims of a deadly boat collision on the River Danube in Budapest in May 2019 will “hopefully become an important symbol to both Koreans and Hungarians, a warning to prevent such tragedies from happening in the future”, the South Korean Ambassador to Hungary Park Chul-min said in an interview with daily Magyar Nemzet published on Friday.

The paper said that on May 29, 2019 Hungary had its worst civilian boat accident when the Viking Sigyn cruise ship collided with the Hableany sightseeing boat which had 33 South Korean tourists on board and a crew of two Hungarians. Seven tourists were rescued from the water after the collision and the rest died.

One of the bodies has not been recovered.

Park praised the Hungarian government’s cooperation in revealing the causes of the accident and the idea to raise a memorial in honour of the victims. He said the Hungarian people’s expressions of sympathy helped process the loss. Park expressed thanks to the foreign ministry for setting up a memorial at the foot of Margaret Bridge in cooperation with the Embassy of South Korea and the 5th district local government.

The memorial will be opened on Monday and the foreign ministry of South Korea will send a high-level delegation to Budapest for the occasion.

“This will be an opportunity for continuing the development of personal diplomatic relations between the two countries,” he said.

Most shocking video of the Hableány catastrophe killing 27 – VIDEO

Hableány

Several recordings on the Hableány tragedy were shown in the Tuesday session of the Budapest-Regional Court. One of them, the most tragic and shocking video recorded by an American tourist from the bow of the Viking Sigyn cruise ship right before the collision, was seen with sound for the first time.

The tragedy of the Hableány sightseeing boat two years ago in May was not only an unbelievably tragic accident that shook many, but a big lawsuit trying to figure out who is really responsible is still in the process. 
According to the indictment, the Viking Sigyn left the dock called Akadémia on the 29 of May in 2019, a little before 9 pm. In a couple of minutes, the ship started accelerating and for

the next five minutes, the much smaller Hableány boat was visible both to the naked eye and on all radar equipment of the cruiser.

According to the prosecutor, during these 5 minutes, “the captain did not concentrate on navigating the ship due to personal reasons”. Thus he did not detect the presence of Hableány, did not increase their speed and did not open the radio’s emergency line. 5 minutes after 9 pm, the big cruise ship ran into the small boat and technically ran over it.

The 30-metres-long sightseeing boat sank in about 30 seconds. 28 people lost their lives that night.

Read all information about the collision here.

According to forensic experts, the captain of the big Viking Sigyn had to know they were about to crash into the small sightseeing boat. However, they say that the accident could not have been avoided even if any of the two vessels decreased their speed. Moreover, they all agree that even if the captain of Hableány suddenly navigated the boat to the right, the collision still would have happened, as in this case, the stern moves first, that still would have crashed into the Viking Sigyn. Thus, the responsibility of the Hableány’s captain will not be investigated, writes telex.hu.

The man’s voice recording the video can be heard clearly. He kept on asking, “Where is the boat?”

Then a man is seen on the footage running towards the bow to see the boat, and a woman starts screaming, probably to the captain, to “Stop the boat!”

The captain of the Viking was asked whether he recognised himself on the video, but as he previously denied making a confession, he did not have to answer the question. According to the lawyer of the Hableány’s captain, however, the Ukrainian captain of the Viking was clearly seen on the footage having no idea about what had just happened.

 

In this footage, we can clearly hear the Viking’s passengers screaming in English “Oh my God, it is a boat! Oh my God, it is a boat!”

ship collision commemoration
Read alsoHungary and South Korea commemorates ship disaster victims in Budapest