PRESS RELEASE OF THE EMBASSY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC (Jan. 8, 2010)

 

On Saturday, January 8, 2011, Senator Jiří Dienstbier passed away after a long illness in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. Senator Jiří Dienstbier (1937-2011) was the first post-communist Czechoslovak Minister of Foreign Affairs (December 1989 - July 1992), the founding father of modern Czech and Czechoslovak Foreign Policy, and one of the leading personalities of the Czechoslovak democracy movement during Communism. After his term as a foreign minister, Jiří Dienstbier served in many international positions, a.o. as a Special Rapporteur to United Nations Secretary General and as a member of Czech parliament.

„Former journalist, Far Eastern correspondent of Czechoslovak press agency, a political prisoner, author of several insightful books and the founder and chairman of the Czech Council on Foregn Relations, Jiří Dienstbier became one of the leading politicians in the post-communist era in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic,“ says Czech Ambassador to Seoul Jaroslav Olša, jr. „He was a visionary diplomat with a deep and thorough knowledge of foreign policy and world history and excellent connections with the world’s leading politicians, who - in his thirty months as a foreign minister - really put the newly democratic Czechoslovakia back onto the political map of the world,“ he adds.

Senator Jiří Dienstbier was also instrumental in establishing the diplomatic relations with the Republic of Korea. Less than a month after his appointment as the Czechoslovak foreign minister, he approved the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the both countries, and he also personally signed the memorandum on establishing of the diplomatic relations with the Republic of Korea on March 22, 1990. Minister Jiří Dienstbier was the first high-ranking Czechoslovak official, who visited Seoul later that same year, too.

Senator Jiří Dienstbier returned to Korea last March on a 3-day visit (Mar. 22-24) to take part in the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the Czech Republic and the Republic of Korea. He arrived in the capacity of a special envoy of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and delivered a congratulatory message on this occassion to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea Hon. Yu Myung-hwan. He was also received by Hon. Lee Yoon-sung, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Hon. Park Jin, his parliamentary counterpart

During this - one of his last - intercontinental trip he also visited the Demilitarized Zone to see the last existing Cold War divide, as in December 1989, it was him with his German counterpart, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who symbolically cut the fence of the so-called Iron Curtain, which so unhappily divided the Europe during the times of communism.

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More details of the visit of the late Senator Jiří Dienstbier to the Rep. of Korea:

http://www.mzv.cz/seoul/en/news_and_activities/seoul_czech_special_envoy_marked_the.html

http://www.mzv.cz/seoul/en/news_and_activities/seoul_exhibition_story_of_czech_korean.html

Other interesting source:

article by Sen. Dienstbier on the occassion of the fall of Iron curtain in NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/world/europe/09iht-voice_jiri.html?_r=1