Cvijetin Mijatović’s Conversation with Kim Il Sung on September 9, 1978

Cabinet of the President of the Republic

Department for Foreign Affairs

Belgrade

September 9, 1978

Cvijetin Mijatović’s Conversation with Kim Il Sung

Pyongyang

No. 138

On September 6, President Kim Il Sung received the state-party delegation headed by Comrade Cvijetin Mijatović and the delegation of Yugoslav’s People’s Army headed by the Chief of General Staff, Comrade Potočar. Following that, he received the state-party delegation consisting of Comrade C. Mijatović, Dr. D. Dragosavac and Ambassador Vardžinski separately.

Comrade Mijatović relayed the oral message of Comrade President.

In his reply, President Kim Il Sung was sincerely grateful for the message and he emphasized the significance of meeting President Tito and the uniformity of our opinions in regard to bilateral and international issues. He expressed his satisfaction that the relations between our two countries are developing successfully and he pointed out his great personal respect towards President Tito.

He thanked Comrade Tito for his engagement in relation to the Korean question and he highlighted that his initiative for establishing informal contacts with the deputies of south Korea on a lower level was useful. They evaluated this initiative and made a decision to consult all the progressive forces and illegal organizations in south Korea and in foreign countries. He underlined that there is great resistance among his supporters in south Korea and Korean organizations outside of Korea for establishing any kind of contact with the deputies of Pak Chung Hee’s government. Their evaluation is that any official contact with south Korea can only mean the affirmation of their dictatorship regime. Kim Il Sung’s opinion is that the contacts should be used while also fighting for the democratization of the regime on the south in order to create the most conducive conditions for a freer movement of the democratic forces. He emphasized that he will aim to explain this to his supporters and friends in south Korea, and to persuade them about this, but that they will, understandably, make their own decision about further actions. He pointed out that he will inform Comrade President about the results of these actions.

During the course of the open and friendly conversation, Kim Il Sung affirmed the significance of the Non-Aligned Movement and its political strength that became an important factor in not only resolving current international issues, but also in mapping out the course for new political and economic relations in the world.

He emphasized the importance of President Tito’s and Yugoslavia’s role and contributions for advocating for developing and maintaining the unity of the movement.

He especially expressed his satisfaction that the Ministers’ Conference of Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade ended successfully, even though it was held in a very complex situation with many unresolved issues between non-aligned countries.

A great number of delegations of non-aligned countries will participate in the celebration of the 30th anniversary of declaring the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They will use this opportunity to talk with these countries about the preparations for the meeting in Havana. They will influence the countries who are not satisfied with Cuba’s action not to boycott the conference and to maintain the unity of the non-aligned movement and to, by doing this, contribute to the conference’s success.

He believes that the conference in Havana isn’t only Cuba’s matter, but a matter of the entire Non-Aligned Movement. He asked that this message is relayed to Comrade Tito.

Lastly, he wished good health to Comrade President and he once again thanked for Comrade President’s attention to the Korean question.