Jaroslav Bařinka: Reflections on Czechoslovak-Korean Cold War Encounters

Abstract:Jaroslav Bařinka, a leading Czech scholar of Koreanology, founding figure of Koreanology in Czechoslovakia, and among the longest–serving Czech diplomats operating in both Koreas, died at the age of eighty–nine on October 3, 2020. Bařinka made invaluable contributions introducing Korean traditional culture, archeology, and literature to non–Korean audiences, based on his extensive travels in the Koreas, Japan, and China spanning half a century. He served as an interpreter and Second Secretary at the Czechoslovak embassy in Pyongyang starting in 1955 and intermittently after that until 1976. He was the first Czech civilian to visit the ROK in 1970, returning there during the 1988 Olympics and in 1991 as Czechoslovakia’s—and in 1993 Czechia’s—first chargé d’affaires to Seoul. He was famous for his meticulous note–taking, sharp eyes, and technical knowledge. To the moment of his death he could talk at length about metallurgical deposits across Czechia and North Korea, their extraction processes, and their chemical properties—or about Confucian writings and architecture. This article recounts Bařinka’s experiences from his long career in Korean scholarship, interpretation and diplomacy, with the aim of shedding light on Czechoslovak–Korean political relations, scholarly and cultural exchanges, and physical encounters from the 1950s to the 2000s. It is a record of conversations based on fifteen long interviews with Bařinka which took place between October 2014 and August 2019, with the objective of tracing the beginnings of Koreanology in Czechoslovakia. The content and style follow Bařinka’s presentation as closely as possible, and errors, omissions, and biases are not carefully flagged, with the aim of accurately reflecting Bařinka’s own narrative. In instances where editorial intervention is warranted, references to sources of additional information and corroborations of Bařinka’s account are separated clearly from Bařinka’s own account.