Report to Comrade Minister Simion Bughici from the Romanian Embassy in Pyongyang to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, August 26, 1954, 10.039/954

Report to Comrade Minister Simion Bughici from the Romanian Embassy in Pyongyang to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, August 26, 1954, 10.039/954, regarding some important matters of our mission

Comrade Minister

I arrived in Pyongyang on August 6, on August 9, at 12:30 I submitted my credentials, and on August 11 I was received by comrade Kim Il Sung, followed by the official visits to the already established embassies, starting with comrade Susdalev, the Soviet Ambassador (I reported on this separately).

[…]

On the occasion of August 15, comrade Kim Il Sung sent presents to all embassies: a crate with 5-6 types of alcohol, 2 bottles each, 2 boxes of 1000 cigarettes each, 2 cookie boxes, all made in Korea, wrapped in special paper, celebrating the anniversary of their liberation.

[…]

One of the hurdles which hinder our work is the lack of space and the distant location where our embassy is located.

While our current location was suitable for wartime conditions, when our activity was very limited, now that the city [of Pyongyang] is in full reconstruction and most of the main North Korean institutions and the embassies [of other] countries are all moving down-town by the end of this year, comrade Susdalev said it was not appropriate, from a political point of view, that we remained isolated, although they enjoy good conditions here, as they built a sufficient number of comfortable barracks. They are thinking of moving to Pyongyang, [but] they do not know how they will solve the space issue, maybe the Korean comrades will give them a temporary location somewhere like they provided the Germans, Bulgarians, and Mongolians with, while the others built their own barracks.

We are in a more critical situation because we didn’t build barracks and we didn’t even start building our embassy, about which we had so many discussions [with the Korean comrades].

I pointed out that we didn’t start building because we did not know we could get a plot of land, construction materials, such a bricks, cement, timber, and reinforced concrete; he [comrade Susdalev] told us that as we could see, there were so many buildings in progress, bricks, cement and timber were no longer a problem; reinforced concrete remains an issue.

For a temporary building, comrade Kim Il Sung asked us for a list with the construction materials we need, so that [the North Korean comrades] can provide us with.

[…]

We went with this proposal to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nam Il, who also showed that [our request was in order], only that it was a bit too late since such construction work was not included in the plan, and [therefore] they did not have enough work force, especially in terms of builders who could build it on such short notice; he said, however, that he would raise the issue with comrade Kim Il Sung who is to decide and who will give us an answer. [handwritten note on the side of the document: he gave a favorable response to our request].

[…]

Signed

Ambassador

[illegible]