Journal of Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 10 August 1957

Nº 482

1 August 1957

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SOVIET EMBASSY IN THE DPRK

Nº 182

16/17 August 1957

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Incoming 02277-ss;

28 August 1957]

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Copy Nº 1

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[handwritten: AVPRF F.0102. O.13 D.72 Delo 5]

The Journal of Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK A. M. PUZANOV

for the period 1 through 15 August 1957

Pyongyang

[…]

10 August 1957

At Kim Il Sung's invitation I went to Nampo with him and participated in the startup of zinc production at the non-ferrous metals plant.

The following issues were touched upon in the conversation that was held on the way.

Concerning the use of corn. Kim Il Sung reported that after the conversation we had on 25 July he gave instructions to a state farm to ensilage corn at the milk-wax stage in order to get silage to use not only for the state farm's livestock but also to fatten the livestock going to the neighboring meat combine. The accumulated experience of the ensilage of corn of milk-wax ripeness and the experience of feeding cattle corn silage will allow its wide-scale use in the republic's agricultural cooperatives beginning with the coming year. He also gave instructions to purchase a silage combine in the Soviet Union for a state farm. Kim Il Sung noted that such a use of corn actually yields an enormous quantity of additional feed, which allows the production of meat to be sharply increased during the five-year plan.

For my part, I told Kim Il Sung about the experience of collective farms of the Soviet Union in getting piglets from a single farrow of pigs. Kim Il Sung displayed great interest and said that they might be able to use this.

Concerning the mechanization of DPRK agriculture. I expressed my views about the need to mechanize agriculture in this five-year plan. Kim Il Sung agreed with the comments and suggestions expressed and said that they intend to introduce equipment based on electricity into DPRK agriculture, but to ship fertilizer and the crop harvest and also to conduct some work in the fields they prefer to buy tractors produced by the Khar'kov Plant in the Soviet Union, the need for which they calculate at about 20,000 units. At his point he gave these estimates: the average size of an agriculture cooperative that they consider the most economically advisable is 100 households; thus in the DPRK there will be about 10,000 agricultural cooperatives (at the present time there are about 16,000), counting two tractors per agricultural cooperative, the need is determined to be 20,000 tractors.

Concerning the prospects for the harvest. The rice, and especially the corn and soy, crops inspected on the way produced a good impression. Kim Il Sung again and again stressed that corn saved the situation in the current dry year and by and large provides an opportunity together with the harvest of rice and other crops to get more grains than were collected last year.

In the city of Nampo we inspected the new layout of the city, the construction of housing, the shipyard, and two ports - the common one and one for loading coal. The city was completely destroyed during the war. At the present time in the city the glass factory, which provides the republic's needs for glass, and the shipyard, which produces ships for the fishing industry, cutters, and trawlers for the navy, have been repaired and are operating. After Kim Il Sung visited Nampo in May of this year the government allocated additional money for the erection of 13 dwellings, for the construction of which public resources in the city were engaged. There is a good seaport in Nampo but at the present time it is not operating since during and after the war it was silted up (a 7-9 meter layer) and has not been dredged out. At the present time preparatory work is being conducted to clean up the port. Soviet specialists are providing help. The coal port was built by the Japanese to ship coal mined in Korea to Japan. The friends have repaired two of the four wharves. Each wharf allows the loading of up to 300 tons of coal an hour.

The startup of zinc production. The non-ferrous metals plant is being repaired with the aid of the Soviet Union at the cost of 1 billion rubles of free aid. At the present time a group of eight Soviet specialists are working at the factory. The first priority was restoration of the production of copper at the factory to 2,500 tons. The Korean friends will produce more than 3,000 tons of copper this year. The second priority is the startup of production of electrolytic zinc. The planned capacity is 8,000 tons. The roasting of zinc concentrate is being done by the latest technology, fluidized roasting. The projected capacity for one or two years of the production of zinc might be raised to 25,000 tons a year, for which the DPRK government is releasing the necessary funds. In addition, during this five-year plan the production of sulfuric acid and up to 50,000 tons of superphosphate will be organized at the factory, and the extraction of rare metals from zinc concentrate and the production of rolled zinc will be organized as well. The plan established for the production of zinc is 4,200 tons in the remaining time before the end of 1957. The workers have taken a commitment to produce 5,000 tons, and up to 15,000 tons in 1958.

Cde. Kim Il Sung gave a big speech at meeting of the collective of construction workers and factory workers. He warmly thanked the CPSU CC and the Soviet government for the latest and modern equipment supplied as free aid, for the enormous aid of the Soviet specialists, and he especially thanked the Soviet specialists who are providing enormous aid in repairing and building the factory.

I spoke for the Soviet side.

Present at the startup of zinc production were: Jeong Il-yong (Deputy Chairman of the KWP CC and Deputy Premier), [Ten Dyun Thak] (Deputy Prime Minister), [Kang Yong Chang] (Minister of the Metallurgical Industry), and other comrades.

The startup of zinc production and the meeting of construction workers and workers occurred in a warm, cordial atmosphere with great political enthusiasm.

In the 11 August press the second and third pages of the newspaper Minju Choson were almost completely devoted to the selfless aid of the Soviet Union to the DPRK in the repair and construction of factories under the common heading, "The fruits of the fraternal aid of the great Soviet people".

I familiarized Kim Il Sung with the position of Sweden on the issue of the Neutral Commission on the Observance of the Korean Armistice.

Kim Il Sung asked me to explore the possibility of sending two children of Nam Il to a Soviet country boarding school for treatment and to continue studies and to do this, if possible…

[…]