Relations date back to the exchange of permanent missions between the two countries, announced during the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

At the time, a large number of officials from various Communist countries were in Seoul, having ignored North Korea's call for a boycott of the Olympics; along with Hungary, they also made various formal and informal contacts with the South Korean government.

[4] By 2007, bilateral trade had grown by nearly ninety times to $1.6 billion; major South Korean investors in Hungary included Samsung and Hankook.

The Hungarian ambassador to South Korea, Miklos Lengyel, who began his service in October 2007, had previously worked in his government's mission in Pyongyang in the 1980s.

[6] South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha also travelled to Budapest, to visit the survivors and relatives of passengers on the Hableány.