Representatives of the Ministry of Unification in South Korea, including its Director General, visited the IPN on 30 August 2024.
This was another visit by Korean officials, organized on the initiative of the Embassy of the Republic of South Korea in Warsaw. This time the guests had the opportunity to learn more about the organization and functioning of the Institute of National Remembrance, the IPN Archive and the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation.
During the meeting, the Deputy Director of the IPN’s Office of International Cooperation Mateusz Marek, Ph.D., presented a film about the Institute's mission and told the guests about our tasks and activities in an international context. In addition, he presented the scope of work carried out by various substantive offices and the future directions of cooperation with international partners, including the flagship project “Trails of Hope. The Odyssey of Freedom”.
Deputy Director of the IPN Archive Mariusz Żuławnik, Ph.D., told the representatives of the Korean ministry about the various resources stored at the Archive, including materials concerning North and South Korea, and the importance of proper preservation, conservation and digitization of the collections. He further explained why the Archive is often called the heart of the Institute by presenting the interrelationship between the work of the various substantive offices and the source materials in the Archive.
Prosecutor Bogusław Czerwinski presented a historical outline of the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation. He presented the scope of the Commission's work, the most important statistics and an outline of the specifics of the Commission's investigations. He talked, among other things, about the value of collecting evidence despite the death of the perpetrator, as moral reparation to the victims and their relatives.
The meeting was organized by the IPN Office of International Cooperation. It was emphasized that from its onset the IPN had been the mentoring institution, especially in the field of transitional justice.
See also:
A delegation from the Republic of Korea visited the IPN – 19 June 2024