Note from Minister M. Naszkowski, 'Regarding the Political Situation in the DPRK'

DEP[artment] V 3 February 1958

SECRET [trans. note:  stamp]

Comrade Minister

M. Naszkowski

in-house

Note

reg[arding] the political situation  in the DPRK

In December of last year, a Plenum of the CC KWP took place and was devoted to the report of the delegation of the Korean Workers’ Party to the celebrations of the 40^th anniversary of the October Revolution in Moscow.

The issue of the Pak Chang-ok [Pak Chang Ok] and Choe Chang-ik [Choe Chang Ik] group, accused of attempting to change the leadership during Kim Il Sung’s stay in Europe in 1956, was revisited at the Plenum.

The former Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim Du-bong [Kim Tu Bong], was criticized for ties to this group, and (for the first time) analogous accusations were made vis-à-vis the v[ice]-premier Pak Ui-wan [Pak Ui Wan] (he is in charge of construction matters).

Following a motion by Kim Il Sung, the discussion about matters of the group was interrupted, transferring newly revealed facts to be examined by the Presidium of the CC.

Kim Il Sung, in his speech, assessed the situation as follows:  the group had been broken up already in 1956, it had no ideological platform and had been made up of careerists.  All new facts must be examined precisely and without a nervous rush.  In his speech, Kim Il Sung did not use expressions used by the Korean press of the kind:  traitors of the revolution, enemies and so on.

In January of this year, Kim Il Sung had a briefing for the whole CC apparatus.  This time he stated that the dispersion of the Pak Chang-ok and Choe Chang-ik group was the same kind of watershed moment for the party and the DPRK as the year 1946 had been, when the foundations of the democratic people’s state were being built.  He stated that the concept of the revisionists, according to whom the most important problem in Korea were the contradictions within the people, had been dealt with, when the most important one is the antagonistic contradiction of socialism-imperialism.

According to information of the PRL Embassy in Pyongyang, repressions against people suspected of connections to the “August group” are continuing.

As the Embassy informs, the campaign of party meetings, at which the cases of people tied to the Pak Chang-ok and Choe Chang-ik  group are discussed, which has been going on for several months has caused tension in the party, which influences the totality of life in the DPRK.

Dep[artment] V is proposing the foll[owing] distribution list:

(This note would be distributed not as an internal [illegible word], but in among our own.

[trans. note:  barely legible signature]

Receiving:

Comr. Cyrankiewicz

Comr. Gomulka

Comr. Jedrychowski

Comr. Loga-Sowinski

Comr. Morawski

Comr. Ochab

Comr. Rapacki

Comr. Zambrowski

Comr. Zawadzki

Comr. Albrecht

Comr. Gierek

Comr. Jarosinski

Comr. Kliszko

Comr. Matwin

Comr. Wierblowski

Comr. Dluski

Comr. Czesak

Comr. Naszkowski

Comr. Winiewicz

Comr. Wierna

Comr. Ogrodzinski