Journal of Soviet Ambassador in the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 28 December 1960

[faded USSR TOP SECRET

MFA stamp:   Copy Nº 1

SOVIET EMBASSY

IN THE DPRK

0198s

21 January 1961

31 December 1960

Nº 193

JOURNAL

of Soviet Ambassador in the DPRK Cde. A. M. PUZANOV

from 19 November through 28 December 1960

[…]

28 December 1960

While meeting a DPRK government economic delegation at the airfield headed by Ryu Ju-yeon [sic] returning from Moscow I had a conversation with Cdes. Pak Geum-cheol, Ri Gye-seon [sic], Jeong Il-yong, and Jeong Jun-taek.

Pak Geum-cheol said that Cde. Kim Il Sung and all of them were satisfied with the results of the talks in Moscow and the Agreement on Economic and Technical Aid and Trade Turnover which was concluded. They also said that today a conference of chairmen of agricultural cooperatives and chairmen of ri Party committees had opened in the Large Theater. Cde. Kim Il gave a report at the conference. The mission of the conference was to mobilize senior cadre of the countryside to fulfill the task set by the KWP CC Plenum: to increase the production of grain in 1961 by one million tons compared to the current year and to work out specific measures to carry outs this task. The conference will last four days. Pak Geum-cheol said that in January CC Presidium members and other senior officials will go to the provinces to organize measures to carry out this task at the local level.

Jeong Il-yong told about the results of the work of the Pyongyang state farm; he noted in particular that thanks to the self-financing which had been introduced and the payment of bonuses to workers the established plans for the production of meat, milk, and eggs had been considerably overfulfilled. An average of 163 eggs had been received from each laying chicken (in the words of Jeong Il-yong, there were a total of 70,000 laying chickens) and 3,200 kg of milk from each cow. Together with bonuses each worker of the state farms earns an average of 87 won per month. At this point Jeong Il-yong noted that the average wage of an industrial worker is about 50 won per month.

I expressed a desire to become personally familiar with the operation of the state farm, if possible. Jeong Il-yong said this could be done at any time I have the opportunity to do this.

Jeong Il-yong also said they plan to get 40,000,000 eggs from the state farms and agricultural cooperatives located in Pyongyang in 1961.

During the meeting, Ryu Gyu-yeon [sic], the head of the delegation, said that Cde. Nozhikov, a Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and Chairman of Gosplan, who headed the Soviet delegation at the talks, examined all the suggestions and wishes expressed by the Korean government delegation very closely and in detail. There were a total of six meetings. During the talks and meetings Cde. Nozhikov behaved matter-of-factly and considered all the questions put by the Korean side with understanding.

x x x

I gave a return dinner for the Mongolian and Hungarian ambassadors. After the dinner I showed the film, "Chelovek S Planety Zemlya [The Man From Planet Earth]".

I briefly informed the ambassadors about the content of the Agreement about Economic and Technical Aid from 1961 to 1967 and the Agreement on Trade Turnover for 1961-1965 concluded between the USSR and DPRK in Moscow. The ambassadors expressed gratitude for the information.

Embassy counsellors were also present at the dinner.

SOVIET AMBASSADOR IN THE DPRK [signature] (A. Puzanov)

Five copies sent

1 - Cde. A. A. Gromyko

2 - Cde. Yu. V. Andropov

3 - Cde. V. I. Tugarinov

4 - UVPI MID SSSR [Translator's note: While the last two abbreviations expand to "USSR MFA" the only known expansion of the first abbreviation is "Directorate for POWs and Internees Affairs"]

5 - to file

Nº 543, re

30 December 1960