Cable from the GDR Embassy in Pyongyang, 'DPRK Proposals on Korea's Unification'

25 January 1979

DPRK Proposals on Korea's Unification

(Source: [GDR] Embassy Pyongyang, [Foreign Ministry] Far East Department)

The Central Committee of the Patriotic Democratic Popular Front of the DPRK has adopted a declaration on January 23, 1979. It makes proposals for detente on the Korean peninsula and to establish conditions for Korea's peaceful reunification. The proposals follow in the footsteps of the “Joint Declaration North-South” from July 4, 1972, where the three principles are defined which are supposed to serve as the basis to implement unification (independently and without foreign interference; by peaceful means; national confederation, notwithstanding differences in ideology, ideals, and social systems). Talks between DPRK and South Korea in the context of the “Joint Declaration” broke down in 1973 without results.

Of particular importance in the declaration of January 23, 1979, is the DPRK's readiness to have a dialogue with the “South Korean authorities” - what had been explicitly rejected since 1973. Park Chung Hee's official offer from January 19, 1979 to hold talks with the DPRK “any time, everywhere, and at every level” is seen as a positive reaction to DPRK efforts to “keep open the door for dialogue”.

The DRPK proposes in concrete terms:

1. Official declaration by both sides on February 1, 1979, at 10:00 hours, to reconfirm the principles of the “Joint Declaration” from 1972.

2. Immediate halt to “mutual polemics and slander”.

3. Immediate halt of all military actions provoking hostilities or representing a threat to the other side; a stop to all military operations near the demarcation line beginning March 1, 1979.

4. Convening an “all-national conference” with representatives from all political parties and social organizations, including the “leader of the Democratic Republican Party” (this refers to Park Chung Hee), in early September 1979 in Pyongyang or Seoul. The conference should discuss ways and means of exchange and cooperation, as well as steps towards unification, including “unhindered activities of political parties in North and South”.

Those activities by DPRK and South Korea, as mentioned above, have to be viewed in close relation to the Japanese-Chinese Treaty, the rapid development of relations between the United States and the PR China, as well as in the context of recent developments in Indochina. They also reflect the growing interests of the Chinese leadership, the United States, and Japan in a settlement of the Korean question through dialogue between the DPRK and South Korea. According to internal information, Deng Xiaoping is supposed to visit the DPRK still before his travel to the U.S. This underlines his declared intention to address in the United States also the Korean question.

Current developments confirm the assessment that PR China and United States strive for a quick settlement of the Korean question, in particular with regard to the interest of removing potential conflicts during further expansion of the Axis Beijing-Washington directed against the socialist community of states [= Soviet Union and its allies, BS]. Accordingly, they [China and U.S.] exert respective pressures on their allies [DPRK and South Korea, BS].

(In addition to recipients of Foreign Affairs Information, this information also went to:

Comrades Geggel, Scheibe, Tiedke; members of the Council of Ministers, Comrades Keßler, Streletz; Comrades Doernberg, Fechner, Krüger, Schwabe; heads of Foreign Ministry country departments; heads of embassies)