Memorandum of Conversation between Soviet Ambassador to North Korea Vasily Moskovsky and Kim Il Sung

10 November 1962

The Aleksandrov Ensemble of the Soviet Army performed in the great theatre of Pyongyang; com. Kim Il Sung, other members of the Politburo, members of the government, ministers, and many members of the CC KWP attended. After the concert, comrade Kim Il Sung hosted a small reception for the leaders of the Ensemble, where he made a brief speech. [...]

The further we move [in time] from the day of the liberation of our country by the Soviet Army, said comrade Kim Il Sung, the brighter its heroic deed stands out before us, the heroic deed of the entire Soviet people in the liberation of Korea from Japanese imperialism. The Korean people will never forget this heroic deed. We know that it is thanks only to the Soviet people and their Army that we obtained the opportunity of independent development of our socialist state. [...]

The Russian folk songs make one sad and happy; they inspire confidence in victory, praise the heroism, courage, and valor of the Soviet people. I always listen to these songs with great pleasure. I think that my colleagues listen to them with the same kind of pleasure.

He [Kim Il Sung] raised the first toast to the Soviet people, who liberated Korea from the Japanese yoke, to the CPSU, to its leadership. Relations between our parties, said comrade Kim Il Sung, have been remarkably good. [...]

In the break between the concert sections, comrade Kim Il Sung remarked very positively on Russian folk songs, Russian music, and sharply criticized jazz music, which, he said, he simply cannot bear to listen to.