The upcoming conference: Korea and the Eastern Bloc: The Onset of the Cold War and the Involvement of Eastern Bloc Countries in the 1950s and 1960s will take Place & Date in Prague, Czechia; 30–31 January 2026
Venue: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, nám. Jana Palacha ½, 116 38 Prague 1; Room P104 (1st floor)
Conference Program:
Friday 30. 1. 2026
10:00 – Start & Opening Remarks (Korea and the Eastern Bloc project introduction; plans for the first book) Lukáš Kubík or/and Miriam Löwensteinová
Panel: The Korean War and International Solidarity. Chair: Balazs Szalontai
10:20 – Balazs Szalontai (Korea University): Grades of Brotherhood: The Typology of International Solidarity in Soviet Bloc and North Korean Public Discourse
10:45 – Alexander Gogun (Free University of Berlin): Prelude to the Apocalypse.
The Korean War in Stalin’s Plan for World Revolution
11:15 – Radu Tudorancea (Nicolae Iorga Institute of History, Romanian Academy): The Romanian Medical Missions in North Korea, a hypostasis of the Socialist fraternal assistance (1951-1957)
11:40 – 12:00 Coffee Break
Panel: Diplomatic Relations. Chair: Marek Hańderek
12:00 – Marek Hańderek (Institute of National Remembrance/Jagiellonian University): Poland’s material aid to the DPRK during the Korean War and its contribution to post-war reconstruction
12:25 – Sylwia Szyc (Institute of National Remembrance): The Year That Shook the Eastern Bloc: The Impact of 1956 on Polish–North Korean Relations
12:50 – Martin Weiser (Freie Universität Berlin): “This party does no longer exist” – East German assumptions about North Korea’s Democratic Party and North Korean purges in the 1950s
13:15 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:10 Transfer to Campus Hybernská
15:00 – 17:00 Photo Exhibition: With Korea Hand in Hand: (Post)War Years.
18:00 Dinner: Restaurace U Pinkasů (http://www.upinkasu.cz/)
Saturday 31. 1. 2026
Panel: Students, War Orphans and International Aid. Chair: Lee You Jae
10:00 – Lee You Jae (Tübingen University): North Korean Students in German Democratic Republic in the 1950s
10:25 – Karolína Šamánková (Charles University), Lukáš Kubík (Charles University), Zuzana Hritzová (Slovak Academy of Sciences): North Korean War Orphans in Czechoslovakia
11:00 – Kateřina Vondráčková (National Heritage Institute): Korean Comrades in Czechoslovakia: New Insights into International Aid to the Heroic Korean Nation in the Name of World Peace
11:25 – 11:40 Coffee Break
Panel: Cultural Exchange and Personal Testimonies. Chair: Miriam Löwensteinová
11:40 – Miriam Löwensteinová (Charles University): Czechoslovakia-DPRK Cultural diplomacy in the 1950s
12:05 – Beatrix Mecsi (Eötvös Loránd University Budapest): Artist Chŏng Hyŏn-ung and the Eastern Bloc Countries in the 1950s and 1960s
12:30 – Vladimír Glomb (Freie Universität Berlin): Jaroslav Bařinka and his Diaries
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:00 Book Talk & Final Discussion
END