That same year France launched a punitive expedition against Korea, invading and occupying portions of Ganghwa Island in the fall of 1866.

In 1887, France sent its first official representative, Victor Collin de Plancy along with his translator, Maurice Courant.

In France, the first records of a Korean living there permanently, Hong Jong-u, who arrived there not too long after official relations were established.

Arriving in Marseille in 1890, he spent a few years working in France in a museum where he would be very helpful in establishing the first Korean Art and Culture section.

Unfortunately for him, he was taken prisoner and spent three years, from 1950 to 1953, in North Korea until he was released and granted a diplomatic post in a different country.

Though South Korea changed greatly in the following decades, the two countries continued to maintain normal diplomatic relations.

France has also supported the Six-party talks as well as the role of the IAEA in attempting to find a solution to the nuclear issue.

[10] Besides bilateral cooperation, France and South Korea work together in international organizations such as the United Nations, UNESCO, the OECD.

[11] However, at the opening in Paris of the 2024 Olympics, the large South Korean athletic representation was orally broadcast by the French commentator as coming from North Korea.

The South Korean sports ministry immediately stated that it would make "strong complaint with France on a government level.