Information on a Meeting between Piro Bita and the DPRK Ambassador

On his request, I received the Korean ambassador. After I asked him about any news from Korea, he answered as follows:

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“Comrade Kim Il Sung teaches us that we must not forget that the construction of socialism in our country is being done while imperialism, which is the enemy of socialism, continues to exist and that is why we need to achieve both the economic construction and the military construction. If we should overvalue one of them or undervalue the other, we would be going to the extreme, so we must combine the two. At the Party Conference of last year, comrade Kim Il Sung reiterated that neither of the two should have a one-sided character.

“Comrade Kim Il Sung teaches us that we must fight the belief that should the war start, the economy will be destroyed and that is why we must concentrate our forces into the military construction. At the same time we must fight the tendency to think that we are doing well and that is why we need to only pay attention to the economic construction and disregard the military one.

“Both these needs are undivided from each other, because while strengthening the economy, the life quality of the people and our defensive power are increased and we can show the world the supremacy of the socialist system. By getting stronger militarily, we will be able to withstand any aggression, and that is why our enemies will never dare to attack us. We must strengthen the defense of our country especially at the present when the American imperialism is waging in all the continents wars of an aggressive character, is threatening the socialist countries, and is following the strategy of leaving the large states alone while turning the blade of its weapons against the small or separated socialist countries to swallow them. In other words, the American imperialism is following the strategy of swallowing one by one the small socialist countries and leaving the larger ones for later. In [December] 1962, at the 5th Plenum of the party, comrade Kim Il Sung reiterated that we must take even further the course of the combination of the economic construction with the military one keeping in mind the events in the Caribbean and the incident at the Tonkin Bay.

“Today the situation is difficult due to the aggression against Vietnam, due to the aggression of Israel in the Middle East, and due to the provocations at the line of demarcation in Korea. Our party reiterates that in these moments we must strengthen the defensive power of the country. We have increased even more that before our defensive strength and the armament of the people. This is the policy that we have also followed in the past, but recently we intensified it even more, because of the severity of the situation.

“We must:

Transform our popular military into a military of cadres, which means a strong military in terms of quality and which will be able to rise up to its feet immediately after being called upon.

Modernize our military. In other words, we must have a military which possesses modern technology and strategic capability.

Arm the entire people. We must use the course of the masses in the military, so that it may be able to face the present conditions. Because in the present conditions, should a war start, there will be no front and rear lines, the entire country will become the front. The entire people must defend the country. The workers must defend the factories and the peasants, their cooperatives.

Fortify the entire country. We must make sure that [North] Korea is turned into a gigantic bunker that can withstand rockets, tanks, chemical weapons, aviation, etc.

“It is possible that the Albanian military delegation that visited our country saw these preparations and construction. We have done this not only at the front line and in the shores, but also at every corner of our country. We are fully prepared that should the enemy dare to attack us, we will deliver sudden, death-spelling blows to him.”

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