Journal of Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 8 August 1960

USSR EMBASSY [USSR MFA Far   [USSR MFA General

IN THE DPRK East Department stamp: Secretariat stamp:

Nº 135 SECRET Incoming Nº 01712s SECRET Incoming Nº

9 August 1960 12-18 August 1960] 09153gs

12 August 1960]

TOP SECRET

Copy Nº 1

JOURNAL

of Soviet Ambassador in the DPRK A. M. PUZANOV for the period

29 June through 8 August 1960

Pyongyang

[…]

8 August 1960

I received Hungarian Ambassador Prath Karoly at his request.

The Ambassador said that he had come to consult about the new measures which the Korean friends want to conduct to strengthen the security of the embassies. The Ambassador noted, I was informed about these measures by the VNR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In reply to my information I received instructions to consult with the Soviet Ambassador about all these issues.

Then Prath Karoly expressed his disagreement about some planned measures, in particular that the sentry ought to be notified in advance almost every time any vehicle leaves the Embassy grounds.

I told Prath Karoly that in my view the measures of the Korean friends to increase the security of the embassies are a fully justified and necessary measure. We ought to keep in mind that the country is divided and, as everyone knows, the Americans have absolute rule in the South of Korea. In the conditions of a divided country, no matter how strict the border security it is not difficult for the Americans to infiltrate spies and saboteurs into the DPRK. As regards the planned measures to strengthen the security of the embassies, I have only been able to familiarize myself with them. Tentatively speaking, among the planned measures there are those with which one can hardly agree. But it seems to me that one can come to agreement with the Korean friends on all the issues. I expressed a desire that all the ambassadors gather together and share opinions about the planned measures to strengthen the security of the Embassy.

Prath Karoly completely agreed with my opinion and said that he will invite all the ambassadors [to talk] about this issue on Thursday, 11 August.

xxx

I visited Kim Il sung and presented to him the CPSU CC letter which reports the proposed period of the work of the Commission to work out a document for consideration at the conference of Communist and worker's Parties in November 1960.

Kim Il Sung said the following: inasmuch as this is an important issue we will discuss it in the Presidium. I think that the members of the Presidium will agree with the period named in this letter. We will report a final answer to you via our Minister, Pak Seong-cheol.

Taking advantage of the visit, I informed Kim Il Sung about the events which will be held in the USSR in connection with the celebration of the 15^th anniversary of the liberation of Korea by the Soviet Army.

Kim Il Sung expressed gratitude to the CPSU CC and Soviet Government for the festive and wide celebration of the 15^th anniversary. This is a good thing, noted Kim Il Sung, and it will help the Korean people in their work. Kim Il Sung noted, you know about our events. Our press has been placing materials for a long time which stress the great liberating role of the Soviet Union. We want to note the 15^th anniversary modestly. We have not invited government delegations to the celebration. There will only be delegations of friendship societies, the Soviet-Korean and Chinese-Korean. Previously the leadership of the Communist Party and trade unions of Japan expressed a desire to take part in the celebration. Therefore we invited a delegation of the Communist Party of Japan and a delegation of the trade unions of Japan to the celebration of the 15^th anniversary of liberation.

Then Kim Il Sung reported that a festive meeting will be held in the new opera theater on the 14^th of August. A parade of troops in honor of the 15^th anniversary will begin at 0800, and right after the parade will be a demonstration of the workers of Pyongyang. A large reception will be held on the evening of 15 August in a newly-built restaurant on the banks of the Taedong River. All 800 team leaders of the "Chollima" brigades who take part in the celebrations on the occasion of the 15^th anniversary will be invited to the reception. Kim Il Sung said, on the 16^th we would like to have a small party with you and your colleagues. We have charged the Minister with talking with you about the composition of this meeting.

I thanked Kim Il Sung.

Right now, said Kim Il Sung, the majority of senior Party and government officials are in Pyongyang. The KWP CC Presidium is considering the draft of the DPRK economic development plan for 1961 for a fourth day and the issues of the KWP CC plenum which opens this afternoon and will end on 11 August. Chairmen of provincial and district Party committees will be present at the plenum and there will be up to 1200 participants. We and thinking of publishing part of the materials and decisions of the plenum in the press, in particular, we will publish in the press the report of Kim Il about the issue of mechanization and technical progress in industry, in agriculture, and in transportation. It seems to us that this will also have importance for the South of the country.

I told Kim Il Sung that the KWP CC plenum will discuss very important issues, technical progress in industry and agriculture and the raining of technical personnel. The implementation of CC plenum decisions will raise the cause of the development of the country's economy and the cause of the development of socialism in the northern part of Korea yet a stage higher. It is absolutely clear to the population of South Korea that the specialists graduating from their educational institutions will not find work and at the same time several times more specialists are being graduated in the north of the country and a program is being laid out to further increase the numbers of graduates. Even a comparison of these two facts demonstrates the successful development of the economy in the northern part of Korea and the stagnation in the South.

Then Kim Il Sung said the following: in the KWP CC Presidium all the Presidium members unanimously expressed the opinion that the conference in Bucharest was held very well and expressed complete support for the political measures of the CPSU CC. The Presidium members consider the actions of the CPSU CC to be absolutely correct. Our Party has not other opinions about these issues. We want the differences which exist to be settled soon in the interest of the unity of the socialist camp. All the Presidium members expressed complete satisfaction with Cde. N. S. Khrushchev's conversation with us and the aid given us. The Presidium approved the activity of the KWP delegation in Bucharest at which the head of the KWP delegation Kim Chang-man completely supported the CPSU position. I am confident that the KWP CC plenum will fully support the actions and the position of the CPSU and the other Communist Parties on the issue which were considered at the conference in Bucharest.

I thanked Kim Il Sung for the information.

Minister Pak Seong-cheol was present at the meeting.

The conversation was interpreted by Embassy Third Secretary D. A. Priyemsky and the Minister's interpreter, Ri Sin-hyeok [sic].

xxx

In the evening I met a delegation of the Soviet-Korean Friendship Society which arrived on a TU-104 aircraft. The delegation was headed by P. A. Antokhin, Second Secretary of the Primorsky Kray Party Committee. Members of the delegation were: N. G. Lebedev, retired General-Major and participant of the liberation of Korea; T.A. Klyuyev, member of the board of the SOKD Society and shock worker of Communist labor; and D. D. Novikov, Chief of a Sector of the RSFSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences.

The delegation was met at the airfield by [the following] Korean friends: Ri Gi-yen [sic], Chairman of the Board of the Korean-Soviet Friendship Society; his deputies Ri Mo-bu [sic] and Pak Yeong-seon [sic]; So-jeon [sic], Chairman of the State Committee for Cultural Relations Abroad; Hong Dong-cheol [sic], Chief of the First Department of the MFA, and others [two or three words too faded to read] up to about [2]00 people.

SOVIET AMBASSADOR IN THE DPRK [signature] /A. PUZANOV/

Five copies printed v[i]

1 - Cde. A. A. Gromyko

2 - Cde. Yu. V. Andropov

3 - Cde. I. I. Tugarinov

4 - USSR MFA UVPI

5 - to file

Nº 395 - 9 August 1960