The Nature of Our Revolution at the Current Stage and the Primary Tasks of Our Party in the Cause of Socialist Development in North Korea

USSR MFA Far [CPSU CC stamp: Secret Copy Nº 1

East Department 12066 7 April 1955

7 April 1955] Nº 574/dv

to the CPSU CC

to Cde. B. N. PONOMAREV

We are sending to you a copy of a conclusion by Soviet Embassy in the DPRK of a Korean Worker's Party CC document, "The Nature of Our Revolution at the Current Stage and the Primary Tasks of Our Party in the Cause of Socialist Development in North Korea".

ATTACHMENT: the aforementioned on three pages (only to the addressee).

[signature]

(I. KURDYUKOV)

[handwritten note

and signatures:

"to the archive.

store with N 02544

I. Shcherbakov 30 May 1955

V. Gorbunov 11 June

I. [[surname illegible] 3 June 1955"]

2-PP/yef

1 - to the addressee

2 - to file

Nº 925-dv

6 April 1955

USSR EMBASSY IN THE DPRK COPY

23 March 1955       SECRET

Nº 72 Incoming 1574-dv    Copy Nº [blank]

6 April 1955

TO DEPUTY USSR MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Cde. N. T. FEDORENKO

We have the following comments about the KWP CC document, "The Nature of Our Revolution at the Current Stage and the Primary Tasks of Our Party in the Cause of Socialist Development in North Korea" sent to you with Embassy letter Nº 27 of 15 February of this year.

This document has not been widely discussed by the Central Committee of the Worker's Party. It was drafted by the KWP CC Agitprop Department and approved by members of the Political Council for the interim orientation of primary Party organizations until the Worker's Party program was adopted at the upcoming Party congress.

In our opinion. there are a number of mistaken positions in the document incorrectly orienting the Worker's Party in the most important issues of Party policy.

For example, it points out they will be able to achieve the reunification of the motherland and create an independent country "by liberating the people of South Korea…and crushing the pro-American and pro-Japanese landowning circles of South Korea" (page 1). As is obvious from this point, the CC is not orienting its Party to achieve reunification of the country by peaceful means and does not set the task of organizing ties with the mass organizations of South Korea and the creation of support for the Worker's Party in these organizations. In our opinion, at the present time the Korean friends ought to stress the need to struggle for the unification of the country by peaceful means in every possible way.

The document correctly stresses that the victory of the popular democratic revolution and its success in North Korea has become a great force opposing imperialist aggression. But further it asserts that only "this force ensured the historical victory of the Korean people in the three-year war of liberation…" (page 4). Here the Korean friends are clearly overrating their forces and underrating the aid of the democratic camp, particularly of the aid of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, which sent their volunteers to Korea. The decisive importance of this aid, which is ignored in the document, is well known.

Such attitudes cannot serve the cause of further development and strengthening of friendly feelings of the Korean people toward the Soviet Union, China and the countries of people's democracy.

In the section of the document about the tasks of the Party in the cause of socialist development there is not a single word about strengthening political, economic, and cultural ties with the Soviet Union, the PRC and the countries of people's democracy. There is also no mention in the document about the world democratic market as a factor which to a considerable degree eases the way for the Korean people to transition to socialist development in their country.

The document contains many untold [neraskrytye] declarative positions. For example, it is not clear how it is proposed "to rally the people of South Korea around our Party" (page 1) or how the growth of the forces of socialism in the northern part of the republic can facilitate the creation of a united front with "…some circles of the national bourgeoisie of South Korea".

The document was unofficially passed to Embassy Counsellor Cde. S. N. Filatov by Pak Yong-bin [sic] for his personal familiarization. Therefore we think that no reference ought to be made to this document in the upcoming conversation with the Korean comrades about the issues touched upon here.

USSR AMBASSADOR IN THE DPRK (S. SUZDALEV)

Authenticated: [illegible signature]

1 - Cde. Shcherbakov

Nº 924-dv

6 April 1955