From the Journal of A. M. Puzanov, Record of a Conversation with Kim Il Sung

from the journal [handwritten entry SECRET Copy Nº 2

of A. M. PUZANOV in a faded stamp:       13 November 1957

13855-gs       Nº 1228/dv

13 November 1957]

RECORD OF A CONVERSATION

with Cde. KIM IL SUNG

On 12 September [sic; November] 1957 a conversation was held with Cde. Kim Il Sung in which he told of a meeting with Cde. Mao Zedong and informed [Mao] about issues which the delegation wishes to pose at the upcoming conversation with Cde. N. S. Khrushchev.

The conversation with Cde. Mao Zedong, said Kim Il Sung, was very warm, comradely, and open. We are very satisfied with this conversation.

Cde. Mao Zedong said that Cde. Kim Il Sung had twice been in the PRC since the war but we have not managed to visit you. We have decided to send you a delegation in the near future headed by Cde. Zhou Enlai, and I myself plan to visit the DPRK after this delegation. "So, will you accept and invite [me]?"

In response to this Cde. Kim Il Sung said they have also discussed this issue among themselves and decided to invite a PRC Party-government delegation and Cde. Mao Zedong personally to visit the DPRK, that what Cde. Mao Zedong said coincides completely with their view, and they themselves plan to visit the PRC in 1958.

Further in the conversation with me Cde. Kim Il Sung said that they are very thankful to the Chinese friends for their decision to visit the DPRK and that the Party and people will receive the Chinese friends, the leaders of the Party and government, with great gratitude, warm, and cordiality.

Kim Il Sung informed Cde. Mao Zedong about the situation in the Korean Worker's Party and some facts connected with the activity of the anti-Party group before the August 1956 KWP CC plenum.

Cde. Mao Zedong said that, having studying the additional facts which had become known to them about the activity of this group, they came to the conclusion that the Korean officials from this group who had gone to China last year had described the situation in the KWP one-sidedly in their letter to the CPC CC, emphasizing only individual shortcomings and mistakes in the work of the Korean leadership. The visit to the DPRK last September by CPC CC Politburo member Cde. Peng Dehuai could be assessed as interference in the internal affairs of the KWP. Therefore we have decided not to resort to such actions any more. There can be shortcomings and mistakes in work in every Party, which they have to correct themselves. You had high-handed methods, you are correcting them, we had shortcomings in the CPC, we criticized ourselves, we were criticized, we also are correcting the shortcomings. The main thing is that there be friendly relations and complete mutual understanding between our Parties.  

In reply to this comment by Cde. Mao Zedong Cde. Kim Il Sung said that some of our comrades actually tried to assess the arrival as interference in the internal affairs of the Party but we considered this as the friendly advice of two fraternal Communist Parties and set as our main goal the preservation of normal, good relations between our fraternal Communist Parties. We have pursued this in practice. We completely support the CPC and CPSU policy in everything. For example, we immediately and vigorously supported CPSU policy during the Hungarian events. All the Party and our people also supported us in this matter.

Cde. Mao Zedong then proposed returning the group of Korean officials who had fled to China after the August plenum. Cde. Kim Il Sung replied to this, "We don't need these people".

Cde. Mao Zedong suggested that the Korean friends consider the issue of the withdrawal of the Chinese People's Volunteers from the DPRK, reasoning that such measures will be politically advisable and well-received by world public opinion, and could force the Americans to withdraw their two divisions from South Korea.

Cde. Kim Il Sung replied to Cde. Mao Zedong that they will carefully study this suggestion.

Speaking of the upcoming conversation with Cde. N. S. Khrushchev Cde. Kim Il Sung said that they want to inform the CPSU leadership and exchange opinions about KWP intra-Party issues. As regards the issues of the development of the country's economy they were completely satisfied with that advice and help which they were given during the DPRK delegation's visit with the draft of the first five-year plan. Therefore only two of the economic issues will be raised:

First, we want to ask the CPSU CC and Soviet government to help supply us with cotton on the order of five to six thousand tons a year instead of the two thousand tons planned for 1958. This is vitally necessary and is brought about by the fact that the Chinese friends decided to give us only 8,000 tons instead of the 12,000 tons which we requested and have received until now. Without such aid we cannot keep the Pyongyang textile mill, which puts out up to 100 million meters of cotton a year when cotton is available, completely busy. Right now we have been developing a whole series of specific measures to create our own base for the production of cotton and to increase the production of synthetic fiber. But until we do this we need help from the Soviet Union.

The second issue is the creation of reserves to supply the army in the event of a military attack on the DPRK. It is difficult for us to create military reserves considering the economic conditions of the country. Therefore we will ask Cde. N. S. Khrushchev to provide for the creation of reserves of fuel, motor vehicle transport, weapons, ammunitions, etc. to supply the Korean People's Army in the USSR's defense plans in the event of an attack on the DPRK.

Cde. Kim Il Sung also reported that he had held a conversation with the leadership of a delegation of the French Communist Party and they made arrangements for the arrival in the DPRK of a Party delegation of the Communist Party of France in 1958.

The DPRK delegation also had a conversation with the leadership of the Romanian delegation and Cde. Chivu Stoica agreed to visit the DPRK in 1958.

Next in the conversation Cde. Kim Il Sung especially stressed and expressed great satisfaction and heartfelt gratitude to Cde. N. S. Khrushchev for the agreement and desire he has expressed to visit the DPRK. We want and very much hope to show the Soviet Party-government delegation what the Korean people have achieved in the development of their economy and how the fraternal aid of the Soviet Union and the other countries of people's democracy has been used, and also to listen closely to the possible advice and wishes of Cde. N. S. Khrushchev and other delegation members.

At the end of the conversation Cde. Kim Il Sung provided information that after the planned meetings and conversation with Cde. N. S. Khrushchev are held they would like to immediately return to the DPRK to convene a KWP CC plenum as quickly as possible with broad attendance of Party activists [s shirokim partiynym aktivom]. At the plenum Cde. Kim Il Sung intends to give a report about the results of the trip by the Party-government delegation to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of Great October, talk about Cde. N. S. Khrushchev's report at the anniversary session of the USSR Supreme Soviet, and about the documents which will be adopted at meetings. They attach very great importance to this and want to stir the Party and people to a successful solution of the immediate tasks of socialist development in the DPRK.

SOVIET AMBASSADOR IN THE DPRK

[signature] (A. PUZANOV)

6-AP/vp

1 - Cde. Gromyko

2 - Cde. Patolichev

3 - Cde. Zakharov

4 - Cde. Fedorenko

5 - the General Secretariat

6 - to file

Nº 2172-dv

13 November 1957