The mission of the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Korea in Žilina (HCRK) is to provide services under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations mainly for Korean natural persons and legal entities in Slovakia.

 These services include:

• creating conditions for cooperation in trade and production between companies of the Republic of Korea and the Slovak Republic
• connecting people in the fields of education, science and research, project support
• creating cultural bridges between the Slovak Republic and the Republic of Korea
• sport events.

In addition to the above general understanding of services, our Consulate provides assistance to Korean citizens who get into trouble in Slovakia, either in personal or business terms.

The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to a great extent limits HCRK’s possibilities to interfere in police or judicial affairs. Therefore, HCRK can only help as an expert on the local situation by providing a lawyer, interpreter or other assistance that does not affect the process of investigation or court. In such cases, HCRK will cooperate with the Korean Consulate in Bratislava that has greater powers in the context of diplomacy. HCRK is not authorized to issue visas to the Republic of Korea or emergency travel documents to Korean citizens. This is the authority of the Consulate of the Embassy in Bratislava only.

HCRK is led by Honorary Consul Mr. Oldřich Kovář who can be reached either directly at the office, or in the Rentis, s.r.o. company premises – right above the Consulate office. Since his work requires occasional business trips, it is advised to arrange a meeting with him at least 2 days in advance. Then, it is possible to arrange a meeting even outside business days.

In this regard, the Honorary Consulate:

• promotes Korean business entities to establish themselves in the Consulate’s operation territory
• provides advisory services to Korean natural persons and legal entities
• seeks business opportunities and partner contacts to develop relations between business and regional actors
• assesses the activity of manufacturing and trading companies in a cross-border dimension
• creates conditions for organizing Korean missions to the territory of operation in Slovakia
• contributes to the presentation of Korean products through organization of workshops, business forums, seminars, and the like,
• cooperates with chambers of commerce and industry and SARIO, and with industry and other associations in order to help Korean entities in business
• provides information about the organisation of specialised international exhibitions and fairs

The Honorary Consulate is instrumental in establishing bilateral relations in all areas supporting the development of science, research, culture and sports.

Despite the large geographical distance between the Slovak Republic and the Republic of Korea, Slovak artists participate in various cultural and social events, which contribute significantly to the positive representation and better knowledge of Slovak art and culture in the geographically remote and socially different cultural space of the Republic of Korea.

Cultural activities are abundant on both sides, and it should be appreciated that many Slovak cultural activities are sponsored by Korean companies (especially KIA Motors). The Republic of Korea experienced performances by Slovak Chamber Theatre Martin (2010 and 2012), folklore ensembles Gymnik (2011) and Vršatec (2015), Slovak Chamber Orchestra (2013), Capella Istropolitana (2013), Cigánski diabli (Gypsy Devils – 2014), Slovak Philharmonic (11/2015). Other events include the first Slovak Film Festival in Busan (2014), exhibition of theatre posters in Gangneung (11/2015), musical Madame de Pompadur starring Sisa Sklovská (07/2016), Žilina symphony orchestra Sinfonietta (09/2016), guitar recital by M. Brüllová (08/2016), exhibition of theatre posters in Seoul (11/2016) in cooperation with the Korea Foundation, and many other cultural activities. (Source MZVaEZ SR – Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic)

There are still numerous opportunities for cooperation in science and research, and we believe these opportunities will be seized soon.

There is a similar situation in sports as well.