Oral Message from the President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Il Sung, to the President of the [Socialist Federal] Republic [of Yugoslavia], Josip Broz Tito

Kim Il Sung’s Oral Message

Attachment: Note about a conversation of the Federal Secretary M. Minić with Ri Djong Mak [sic], who delivered Kim Il Sung’s message, from January 22, 1976

Dear Comrade Josip Broz Tito, allow me to express my gratitude for finding time to give us an audience despite being so busy.

Above all, I want to relay warmest brotherly greetings that Kim Il Sung, General Secretary of the Central Committee of our Party and President of the Republic, sent to you, Comrade Josip Broz Tito.

Having received the news that you are not feeling well, he wishes you a speedy recovery and a full return to your health.

The respected and beloved leader of our people was very pleased with your last year’s unforgettable meeting and the conversations he had with you, and he talks about this often and fondly.

This visit was a historic event for improving the relations of our two parties and countries.

Our Party is investing all its efforts to further strengthen the results of this visit, and to expand and develop the friendly relations of our countries and the brotherly collaboration between our two Parties and people in all directions.

You, Comrade Josip Broz Tito, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, as well as the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, have given sincere support in the international arena and in the UN to our people and their cause to reunify the homeland. You did this as if it was your own cause, and you also developed wide actions with the aim to have our country participate in the Non-Aligned Movement.

On the request of our respected and loved leader, I am express the deepest gratitude to the respected Comrade President.

Comrade President Kim Il Sung requested that I tell this to Comrade President Josip Broz Tito this time:

“Dear Comrade Josip Broz Tito,

As I found out you would be visiting certain countries in South America, I am sending you some messages about certain issues through my special deputy.

Comrade President, the visit you will make to South America will be a significant opportunity to further strengthen and develop friendly relations between Yugoslavian and South American countries.

The region of South America is a weak link in our relations with foreign countries.

Since our delegations haven’t visited South America often and there is only few countries we have diplomatic relations with, this region doesn’t fully understand the situation in our country and its issue of reunifying the homeland.

We intend to invest further efforts in improving our relations with countries of South America.

This is why I would ask you, Comrade President, to use your coming visit to South American countries to influence them to understand our country in the right way and to establish diplomatic relations with our country.

I also believe, Comrade President, that you will consider the issue of strengthening and developing the Non-Aligned Movement with South American countries during your coming visit.

This active foreign policy that Comrade Tito is running, as one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement and a person of prestige and authority in this movement, is of great importance, especially right before the Fifth Non-Aligned Movement Summit.

The imperialists are very upset and worried about the strengthening of the Non-Aligned Movement.

They are resorting to various insidious machinations and attempts to weaken and destroy the Non-Aligned Movement, cause its schism and diminish it from the inside.

As you know, Comrade President, by making it harder to resolve the issues of West Sahara, Angola, Near and Middle East righteously, the imperialists are trying to sow discord and to cause disagreement and antagonism between the interested countries and to usher them to fight among themselves.

These attempts to divide and alienate non-aligned countries are an integral part of the imperialists’ anti-revolutionary “hypocritical tactics” as well as their strategy that they apply to the developed peoples of the world and whose only aim is to destroy those peoples one by one.

Since the situation that happened right before the Fifth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement is complex, I believe it is important that the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement prepare well for this Summit.

In order for the Fifth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement to be successful, we believe it is necessary for the responsible employees in specialised organs of these two countries to be informing each other, exchanging opinion about current issues and strengthening our collaboration, through contacting and consulting with each other more often, and with the aim to take the next steps together.

Many questions are being raised right now in relation to the preparations for the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement that we need to consult on.

Questions such as the overview and evaluation of the international political situation, strengthening the status and role of the Non-Aligned Movement, strengthening the mutual support, collaboration and solidarity of non-aligned countries, etc. are planned for the agenda of the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in August this year. We believe that these two points fully reflect the needs of the current moment and the tendencies of the Non-Aligned Movement.

At the same time, we also believe that the Korean Question should be one of the important topics on the agenda of the coming Non-Aligned Movement Summit.

Now that the issue of Indochina is resolved in Asia, urgently solving the Korean issue is becoming a question of utmost importance for eliminating tension created in this part of the world, and for removing the danger of war and securing long-term peace.

Solving the issue of reunifying our country, a member of the Non-Alignment Movement, quickly is in accordance with the Non-Aligned Movement’s noble ideals and it also contributes to advancing the common cause of this movement.

For this reason, we are expressing our hope that the issue of Korea will be included in the agenda of the Fifth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement and that this summit will adopt the good resolution that will contribute to the withdrawal of aggressive forces of American imperialists from south Korea and to accelerating the independent and peaceful unification of Korea.

Our country’s authorities have already sent a letter in which we are expressing our proposal to Algeria, the chair of the previous Fourth Non-Aligned Movement Summit.

I will take the liberty of asking you, Comrade President, to pay attention to this issue and to invest active efforts into achieving our righteous proposal.

There are many issues related to the Fifth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement that need to be addressed with concrete measures in advance. Among all, the question of a permanent authority of the non-aligned movement needs to be thoroughly deliberated.  

As for the permanent authority of the Non-Aligned Movement, we already exchanged opinions with Samdech Norodom Sihanouk during his visit to our country at the end of last year, and we heard the opinions of some member countries’ leaders.

We believe that Samdech Norodom Sihanouk probably discussed this question with you, Comrade President, during the visit to your country.

The leaders of member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement that we have been in contact with so far mostly expressed the opinion that forming such an authority would be a positive influence for further strengthening and developing this movement as well as on its confronting the opposing forces, the imperialists’ destructive and divisive attempts.

Surely, there are many other issues that need to be resolved before forming a permanent authority of non-alignment and this is why we believe it crucial to approach to exchanging our ideas and creating suitable conditions before the Summit.

Since the moment is approaching when the preparation for the Conference Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Countries has to start, I will once again mention this question in belief that it would be useful for the preparations of the Summit to be fully acquainted with your stance on this question, Comrade Tito, as well as the stance of other member-countries that you will contact in the meantime.

In order to secure the success of the Summit, it is also essential to collaborate with the host-country Sri Lanka along with the preliminary exchange of ideas between member-countries.

The imperialists are trying in all ways possible to prevent the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement from being held successfully.

According to the information that we have, the US are pressuring Sri Lanka from all sides, and it seems like Sri Lanka is encountering some difficulties and obstacles because of this.

In these conditions, I believe it is important that the countries that present the core of the Non-Aligned Movement, as your country does, help Sri Lanka resist the pressure of the imperialists and secure the success of the Fifth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement following the principles and ideas of non-alignment.

We also intend to join Sri Lanka as much as we can.

We are maintaining good relations with Sri Lanka. We normalized our relations that haven’t been normal for a while now.

However, we still haven’t opened a permanent outpost in Colombo and we haven’t been able to help as much as we could and as much as this country really needs it because of this.

We do want to open our embassy in Colombo, but this question is still unresolved, probably due to the current situation in Sri Lanka.

We are asking you, Comrade President, that You and your country’s government help us as much as you could so that Sri Lanka can resolve the issue of opening our embassy in Colombo from their side.

I also hope that our useful conversation that we started in Ljubljana will continue in Pyongyang when you return the visit to our country.

Comrade President, our people will give you a warm welcome when you visit our country.

Lastly, I express my wish that your visit to Latin America be crowned with success. I wish you good health on this trip.

This is the message that the president Kim Il Sung, the respected and beloved leader of our people, is sending to the respected Comrade President through me.”

Dear Comrade President,

Comrade President, if you send the reply to the message of our respected President Kim Il Sung through me, I could personally deliver it to our leader right after my return.

I would also like to use this opportunity to tell you about one more issue for which we are asking for help from our Yugoslav brothers, and that is the issue of reunifying our homeland.

This is to say, we would like to ask our Yugoslav comrades to advocate for developing a widespread movement in Europe that would support our people in our attempts to reunify our homeland.

Taking into account that our resolution suggestion was adopted at the last year’s 30th General Assembly of the United Nations, it is important to raise our voice and demand that the United States of America stop “commanding the forces of United Nations” and that they withdraw their troops from south Korea according to this resolution of the UN as soon as possible, and in turn pressure the United States of America to change their position.

If this voice is raised in Europe, the United States of America would find themselves in an even deeper dead-end than if it would be raised in other regions, but we still haven’t done enough on this field.

(Translation from Russian: It would be possible to drive the USA to an even deeper dead-end if this voice spreads in Europe stronger than in other regions).

As Comrade Kim Il Sung, the respected and beloved leader of our people, said during Comrade Stane Dolanc’s visit to our country, it would be desirable that our Yugoslav comrades take on the main role in raising the voice of support in the Korean people’s issue of reunification across Europe.

We are coming to you with a request related to this matter because Yugoslavia maintains close relations to the parties on top of European countries and because President Tito has great influence among leaders of ruling parties of European capitalist countries.

If you’d, first and foremost, invite the deputies of ruling European parties, as well as the distinguished people of ruling parties from the rest of the world, to one conference of solidarity with the Korean people in Belgrade, it would be of great significance.

(Translation from Russian: We are coming to you with this request because Yugoslavia maintains close relations with leading parties of European countries and because you, Comrade Tito, have a great influence on ruling parties of European capitalist countries.

If a Conference of solidarity with the Korean people with the participation of the functionaries of ruling parties from many countries of the world, led by deputies of ruling European parties, is to be held in Europe, it would be of great significance.)

We are asking you, Comrade President, to focus on this problem as well.