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There are sometimes in your life people whom you meet for the first time but you feel very comfortable with, while there are others whom you have associated with for many years but still make you feel as yet uncomfortable. Latvia was the former case with me. Certainly I had never been to Latvia before, but I felt that my lover, whom I had broken up with long time ago, would be waiting for me there, so I would have to meet her. It was when I was crossing the Baltic Sea on a noisy propeller aircraft from Helsinki that I thought I knew the cause of the sense of déjà vu. It was because of the 'Baltic Sea'.

The ship named 'Varyag' meaning 'the warrior of the Baltic Sea' and the '2nd Pacific Fleet of Russia' well known as the 'Baltic Fleet' were inseparably related to the modern history of Korea. 'The Varyag' and 'The 2nd Pacific Fleet' were the beginning and the end of the Russo-Japanese War which determined the destiny of Korea to be occupied by Japanese military forces and become a protectorate leading eventually to annexation. Started with the sea battle in Jemulpo on February 8, 1904 and ended with the complete destruction of 'Russia's 2nd Pacific Fleet', it was a mysterious war that started with a sea battle and ended also with a sea battle. While Korea, located at the eastern end of the Eurasian continent, is about 7,300km away from Latvia which is located at the western end of the continent, such historical experience may have helped feel such sympathy.

As soon as I arrived in the capital city of Riga, I went to the war museum of Latvia. The refurbished museum building was an explosives warehouse in the medieval age. Its old-fashioned outer appearance was attractive and there were lots of exhibits attracting my eyes too, but the best thing there was free admission. Suddenly I was struck by a thought that Latvians are very good respectable people. Particularly, a photo of a Russian seaman from Latvia in the exhibition room on the 3rd floor of the museum touched my heart briefly, then I was lost into long contemplation.

Russian seaman A. Milbergs
from Latvia. He was a
steersman of the 'Varyag'

He was A. Milbergs, a Russian seaman from Latvia, who had come to Korea as steersman of the 'Varyag' that later sank at the Sea Battle of Jemulpo.
Saved from the sinking 'Varyag', he was wearing a group of medals awarded by the Russian government hanging on his breasts. He was looking at me absent-mindedly from the memorial picture. A mix of feelings could be seen on his face: the survivor's regret for his co-workers who chose to explode themselves together with 'the Varyag' in order not to be captured by the Japanese Navy; agony of a Latvian who had to serve in the Russian Navy as his country Latvia had been occupied and annexed by Russia in 1710; and fear about the unfamiliar circumstances faced in the Far East according to the Pacific Fleet strengthening policy of the Tsar government.

At last the Latvian young man got aboard the Russian battle ship 'Varyag' which had been built at 'William Cramp & Sons'shipyard in Philadelphia, USA in 1900. His life was saved on the sea in front of Jemulpo from the crisis of death cued by the attack of the Japanese Navy. This complicated drama tells the personal epic journey of Milbergs.

A historical Odyssey is written on Korea and Latvia.

The "Forum celebrating 20 years of amity between Korea and Latvia", which was held on October 18, 2011 in the building of the Latvian Foreign Ministry, was an occasion for writing a historical Odyssey on Korea and Latvia.

Similarity exists between the two countries in their historical experience in the course of regaining independence. More active researches should be conducted jointly by the two countries on this together with the East Asian policies of imperial Russia.

In particular, the similarity between the two countries was confirmed in the forum's third round on "Historical experiences by Korea and Latvia" where the independence courses of the two countries were compared. This was confirmed through a presentation by LEE Soon-cheon, a former director of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security and currently a professor at School of Law of Korea University on a topic titled "The Identity and continuity of a state : cases in the Baltic countries and Korea" and a presentation by Aivars Endzins, a former head of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia, and currently a professor at School of Business Administration Turiba on a topic titled "A review of the independence of Latvia".

While Professor Endzins broadly explained the process of Latvia's restoring its independence, Professor LEE Soon-cheon analyzed common characteristics appearing in the independence restoration processes of Korea and Latvia by raising a question of "How can a nation that has been destroyed for 50 years be restored again?" Professor LEE pointed that the three Baltic states which had restored their independence from the Russian rule in 1991 had declared that they were not newly created countries but they were restoring their sovereignty and independence that they had prior to their annexation. He continued to say that most European countries recognized the Baltic states were succeeding their nations prior to their annexation. His argument was focused on proving that although the three Baltic states were annexed by Russia in the middle of the Second World War according to the 'Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact' between Nazzi Germany and Stalin, these states actually existed continuously from the legal point of view because the annexation breached the international law.

However, the three Baltic states are not the only cases for countries that have restored statehood again after they ceased to exist. Korea too is a nation that has restored its sovereignty and independence again from the colonial rule of Japan. The Republic of Korea has claimed that the'1905 Protectorate Treaty' and the Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty in 1910 were not valid from the beginning because the treaties were made by force. This position has been verified in the Korea-Japan Agreement in 1965 confirming that all treaties made prior to the 1965 Agreement were already invalid. In line with this, Professor LEE viewed that the 1947 UN resolution recognizing the Republic of Korea was'the only legitimate government' means that it recognized the government not the state itself. He explained that Korea had been existing even in the period of Japanese colonial rule.

After all, the historical experiences by Korea and Latvia rather prove that the international community does not recognize the valid period or legal effect of an occupation or annexation by illegal use of force. Because the two countries' case became a historical turning point confirming a statement that 'No one can get benefits from illegal acts'.