Journal of Soviet Ambassador in the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 8 December 1960

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USSR 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

[…]

8 December 1960

I was invited to a dinner held by First Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and KWP CC Presidium member Kim Il along with Embassy Counselors V. I. Pelishenko, V. A. Zharkov, and N. Ye. Torbenkov. Present at the dinner from the Korean side were: Kim Chang-man, Deputy Chairman of the KWP CC and member of the KWP CC Presidium Organization Committee; Ri Gyo-sun [sic], Chairman of the CC of the United Trade Unions; and Pak Seong-cheol, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

During the dinner Kim Il in the name of all members of the DPRK Party-government delegation which took part in the celebration of the 43^rd anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the work of the Moscow Conference of representatives of fraternal Communist and worker's Parties, expressed deep appreciation to the CPSU CC for the attention and concern with which they were surrounded during their stay in Moscow. He noted that the historic documents adopted by the Moscow Conference inspire our Party, the entire Korean people, and the peoples of the entire world in the struggle for peace, democracy, socialism, and liberation from colonialism and are evidence of the unbreakable unity of the fraternal Communist and worker's Parties.

Touching on the Statement of the Soviet government on the issue of the peaceful reunification of Korea Kim Il expressed gratitude to the CPSU CC in the name of the KWP CC Presidium and Cde. Kim Il Sung personally for this strong Statement in support of the proposals of the DPRK government. He said that the Statement of the Soviet government is evoking a broad response both in the entire world and in South Korea.

Kim Chang-man noted that the proposals of the 8^th session of the VNS are already known at the present time in the main cities of South Korea and the government of Chang Myon has been forced to maneuver in order to distract the people's attention from the DPRK proposals. For example, in connection with the DPRK VNS proposal about sending electrical power to the south the issue of building a 50,000-kWt power station and electrical equipment factory was discussed in the National Assembly of South Korea. He added that a shortage of electrical power is being felt in South Korea; electric lights are turned off for two hours every day.

Ri Gyo-sun said that the Association of Korean Citizens in Japan has duplicated the proposals of the 8^th DPRK VNS session in the form of leaflets and organized their distribution from aircraft (more than 3,000,000 copies) in eight large cities of Japan.

Kim Chang-man added that the proposals of the DPRK government are evoking sympathetic responses among the workers of South Korea and cited the example when peasants of one of the districts turned to the government with a demand to develop virgin lands, as was mentioned in the DPRK VNS proposals. Kim Chang-man said, at the present time not one South Korean political figure can avoid defining his position on the issue of the reunification of Korea and even Chang Myon says he favors the peaceful reunification under UN supervision.

For my part I noted that the DPRK government had chosen the moment to submit proposals concerning the reunification of Korea very successfully.

In conclusion I thanked Kim Il for the warm, comradely meeting.

Embassy Third Secretary D. A. Priyemsky was present at the dinner and translated.

[…]

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