Note On a Conversation with USSR Embassy Counselor Comrade Pimenov on 24 January 1975 in the Soviet Embassy

GDR Embassy to DPRK

- Political Department -

Pyongyang, 28 January 1975

N o t e

On a Conversation with USSR Embassy Counselor Comrade Pimenov on 24 January 1975 in the Soviet Embassy

The meeting was arranged upon our request.

1. We had an exchange of opinions about the extensive “Rodong Sinmun” coverage of the People’s Congress in China (Zhou Enlai speech) and arrived at the following main conclusions:

1. the publication of major excerpts from Zhou Enlai’s speech at the People’s Congress does not represent any novelty since it was handled similarly concerning the 10th CCP Party Congress [of 1973];

1. with this extensive reporting the Mao Group received the opportunity to spread [in North Korea] the usual Maoist opinions on a couple of important political and ideological questions (role of the “superpowers,” “Third World,” War – Revolution);

1. the coverage in “Rodong Sinmun” would not be impossible in this form if not for a certain closeness between PRC and KWP on a range of issues;

1. although direct anti-Soviet attacks have been carefully omitted, it is clearly evident from context that the “superpowers” are meant to be the United States and the Soviet Union;

1. with these publications the DPRK is also honoring extensive coverage of recent Kim Il Sung speeches in the Chinese press.

2. Comrade Pimenov provided the following information in addition:

Foreign Minister Heo Dam [Ho Tam] expressed in a conversation with the Soviet Ambassador that the DPRK Foreign Ministry is carefully preparing a visit by Kim Il Sung to the Soviet Union in 1975. The Koreans are asking the Soviet leadership to propose a date for 1975.

In the same meeting Heo Dam raised the question whether there had been an “agreement” on Korea in Vladivostok [at the Soviet-American summit of October 1974]. (This same context also applies to a recent article in “Rodong Sinmun” where the proposal by some capitalist states for a simultaneous recognition of South Korea by socialist states and the DPRK by capitalist states is discussed.)

In the opinion of Comrade Pimenov, Heo Dam’s questions demonstrate how the DPRK can envisage the absurd scenario that behind its back the Soviet Union might arrive at arrangements with the United States to the detriment of the DPRK.

Steinhofer

CC:

1x Foreign Ministry/Far East

1x Embassy/Political Department