Byund Dae-Ho, Korean Ambassador
Five Stars Zagreb Issue 29 — June 01, 2009.

More than two years have passed since I have been living in Zagreb. During the time, I had chances to travel many corners of Croatia and I am enjoying the pleasant surprises which the place offers. Among them are the natural beauty of its sea and landscapes, kind people and rich culture and history that Croatians have kept well.

Croatian efforts to keep clean natural environment, diverse traditions and cultural and historic assets deserve special praise. Croatia has seven sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List under the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972. They represent the unique character of the works of nature and history in the region. In addition, Croatia has a long list of intangible heritages which the Government is working hard to be included in the UNESCO's Memory of the World Registry and Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity List.

Korea, a country with a long history, has eight World Cultural Heritage List inscribed. Korea also has six properties inscribed on the Memories of the World Register and has three properties inscribed on the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity List. Like Croatians, Koreans pay special attention to keep its natural, cultural treasures and traditions due to many foreign invasions and wars on its soil.

Korea and Croatia have common interests and excellent international cooperation in preserving the world natural and cultural heritage. Last year, thanks to the Croatian Government’s initiative and Korea’s support, Koreans had chances to see the beautiful Croatian nature and historical heritage sites through the Photo Exhibitions held in several places in Korea. Now 15 million-a-year Korean tourists abroad are beginning to put Croatia on their travel itinerary.

Zagreb is not a big city to be world famous, but the historic city with eight hundred thousand inhabitants has its unique character to make it the symbol of Croatian national pride and identity. Not to mention the big Cathedral, Kaptol, or other beautiful historic buildings in the city, I would like to draw attention to the large Cemetery Mirogoj built in the latter half of 1800s where three hundred thousand Zagrebian ancestors settled down and made it their permanent resting place. There, I feel the warm breaths of the Croatians. On Memorial Day evenings, this place becomes a huge city of dimmed lantern lights, drawing all the family descendants together in one place. Thus, Zagreb can be called a city of eleven million inhabitants dead or alive.

Walking along the high walls of the cemetery and the Cathedral, I sometimes recall a part of history of this city. Positive things put aside, let me point one thing. Only until several hundred years ago, people in this city were divided and put their lives in danger just for some square meters of land that they think belonged to them. We human beings sometimes fight for something grandiose, but in fact men are more apt to fight for small things which they later realize were really not worth fighting for. After all, as Leo Tolstoi wrote, “how much land does a man need on earth?”

I was appointed as the first Korean Ambassador residing in Zagreb in 2007. One of my missions was to find a suitable place in the city to fulfil my duty of enhancing relations between Korea and Croatia. After several months of surveying and legging around many parts of the city, I was able to come across a place, looking up the beautiful mountain of Sljeme. The building, called Villa Kalina, classified as the first class monumental site by the city of Zagreb, was half-ruined when I first visited. The building needed a lot of work for normal use, but it seemed a perfect place for our Embassy chancery and residence.

And voila! Several months later, I moved in a new beautifully renovated building. An official opening ceremony of the Embassy Complex was held on 31 October last year with both my Vice Foreign Minister in Seoul and State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs of Croatia present, together with the diplomatic corps and friends of our Embassy. The new Embassy Complex will provide a comfortable place for exchanging friendship and strengthening bilateral relations between Korea and Croatia.

I am proud that not only I have a nice place to live in and to carry out diplomatic functions, but I have also somehow contributed to the rehabilitation and preservation of the Villa Kalina, more than one-hundred-year-old historic building in Zagreb. I feel myself to be a Zagrebian and a part of Croatian history.