Hungarian Embassy in Bangladesh, Telegram, 28 December 1981. Subject: DPRK-Bangladesh relations.

On December 12-14^th, the premier of the DPRK paid a state visit to Dacca. According to the information provided by the Korean ambassador, they had originally planned to send a party and government delegation in 1982, but the BNP [Bangladesh Nationalist Party] did not consider it timely to arrange a meeting of party delegations.

The ambassador told us the following:

In the field of foreign policy, particular emphasis was laid on the Non-Aligned Movement. [The Bangladeshi side] expressed the view that Bangladesh enthusiastically supported the movement, but they would be more pleased if its center were not Cuba but, for instance, the DPRK, and if its leader were not Fidel Castro but rather Kim Il Sung. [hand-written comment on the margin of the document: ?!]

The Bangladeshi leaders are of the opinion that the deterioration of East-West relations was caused by the inappropriate behavior of the socialist countries.

They confirmed that in February, President [Abdus] Sattar would travel to India, while the Pakistani president would visit Bangladesh in April.

They are going to invite a Korean party delegation for the BNP congress scheduled for January.

The Bangladeshi president accepted an invitation to the DPRK for 1982.

In the field of domestic politics:

They paid special attention to the achievement of economic self-sufficiency in Bangladesh. The DPRK is ready to provide assistance to that by inviting technical experts on a regular basis, for training periods ranging from one month to one year.

The Bangladeshi side informed [the North Koreans] that after the presidential elections, the situation had not been finally settled yet; the government would soon undergo a reorganization to make it smaller than the present one.

The ambassador is satisfied with the result of the visit.

102 – G.