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26.06.2017

Representatives of the Korean Unification Leadership Program visited the IPN

On 5 June 2017, a delegation of high-ranking Korean officials from central and local government administration visited the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw as part of their trip to Poland under the Korean Unification Leadership Program.

The IPN was represented by Dr Mateusz Szpytma - Deputy President of the IPN, Andrzej Pozorski - Director of the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation and Deputy Prosecutor General, Dorota Cebrat - Head of the Department of Supervision over Investigations of the Chief Commission, Mariusz Kwaśniak - Deputy Director of the IPN Archive, Dr Mariusz Żuławnik - Deputy Director of IPN Archive, Dr hab. Sławomir Kalbarczyk - Head of the Department of the History of Poland until 1945 of the IPN’s Historical Research Office and the staff of the Office: Dr Marcin Przegiętka, Marek Hańderk and Sylwia Szyc.

"Poland and Korea share similar experiences. The situation on the Korean Peninsula can change at any moment. It is therefore certainly worth being prepared for every eventuality in terms of the fall of the dictatorship and the communist system, "said Mateusz Szpytma, Deputy President of the IPN.

Many interesting topics were discussed during the meeting. The Institute's specialists touched upon issues related to Polish-Russian and Polish-German historical disputes, difficulties in judging communist criminals after 1989 and possible solutions facilitating their prosecution. The guests also heard speeches on the documents held in the IPN Archive, their security and use in the vetting process. Proposals for possible courses of action aimed at  facilitating the settlement of Japanese-Korean historical disputes and suggestions on bringing the representatives of the North Korean regime to justice were further presented. The hosts talked about their suggestions concerning the process of preparation of the two Koreas for the necessary socio-economic reforms awaiting.

This was another in a series of meetings of Korean officials responsible for preparing the peninsula's reunification with the staff of the Institute of National Remembrance. In October 2016, the scholars of the Historical Research Office, Marek Hańderek and Przemysław Gasztold-Seń participated in a conference in Budapest devoted to the experiences of the political transformation of the countries of the Visegrad Group and the lessons stemming from them for Korea. In turn, in December 2016, Marek Hańderek took part in a conference of a similar profile organized in Seoul. In March this year, a meeting with the representatives of the South Korean Ministry of Unification, devoted to the Polish experience of the political and economic transformation after 1989, took place at the headquarters of the Historical Research Office.


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