South Korea last month remembered its former President Roh Moo-hyun who once said, “We are cousins” while commenting on Korea’s friendly relations with India. On July 30 – the International Friendship Day, the Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) in India while celebrating the day with India, said, “For two countries holding cultural values in high regard, our friendship is sacred and set in stones since past and for years to come. India and Korea’s historical connection has roots in the Korean historical record Samguk Yusa.

As per Samguk Yusa, the Princess Huh Hwang-ok of Ayuta (speculated to be Ayodhya of India where her name was Princess Suriratna), set sail for a three-month journey about 2000 years back, using special stones to calm the waters on her way to Korea. She landed safely on the shores of the Gaya Kingdom and married King Suro of the Geumgwan.

According to legend, they gave birth to ten sons and two daughters, who went on to continue the Gimhae Kim and Huh family line, which made about 5 million citizens of the Korean republic till about a few years back. The number has probably gone up to 8 million currently. “We are cousins” proclaimed former Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.

During a visit to South Korea in 2012, Gursharan Kaur, wife of former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, inquired about the number of Indians living in Korea. “Seven to eight thousand,” was the answer the then Indian Ambassador Vishnu Prakash gave her. But then-South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s wife, Kim Yoon-ok, gave a much higher number, saying that it was actually 5 million. Ms. Kim, herself, claimed to be one of them considering the Indian princess as the mother of many Koreans today.

(With agency inputs)