Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry

Appendix V. Information Report, „Comrade Pullai’s Visit to Comrade Kim Il Sung.”

    Following the April 9-10 discussions between the delegations of the HSWP CC and the KWP CC, on the 10th [of April] at 5.30 p.m. Comrade Kim Il Sung, the General Secretary of the KWP CC, received the Hungarian party delegation in the building of the KWP CC.

    The following persons were present: Árpád Pullai, a secretary of the HSWP CC; András Gyenes, the deputy head of the Foreign Affairs Department of the HSWP CC; the members of the Hungarian party delegation; and Pak Seong-cheol [Pak Song Chol], a member of the Political Committee of the KWP CC; Kim Yeong-nam [Kim Yong Nam], the deputy head of the Foreign Affairs Department of the KWP CC; the members of the Korean party delegation; and – at the invitation of the Koreans – Ambassador István Kádas, and embassy officials Lajos Karsai and Sándor Etre.

    […]

    By way of introduction, Comrade Kim Il Sung said thanks for the visit of the Hungarian party delegation and the information it gave about the consultative meeting the fraternal parties had held in Budapest, and emphasized that he had nothing to add to what had already been expounded during the bilateral (Hungarian-Korean) discussions on that subject.

    […]

    „Over here the internal situation is not bad but good,” Comrade Kim Il Sung went on.     

    Spring agricultural work has begun and it is coming on fine. However, it would come in useful if there was more rainfall. The lack of rainfall is an impediment for industry as well. There are not enough thermal power stations yet, and the power generation of hydroelectric power plants is influenced by the amount of water and waterfall. We have other difficulties too, but we reckon that we will be able to fulfill the economic plan we set ourselves. That is, in this respect our situation is not bad.

    In every socialist country there are difficulties of this or that kind, and we are not exceptions to this rule either. We consider this natural, however. We think that these difficulties are the difficulties of development and growth, which can be solved and we will indeed solve them. That is, our situation is not bad in this respect either.

    The American imperialists made a fuss and noise about the Pueblo incident, but this has also abated by now. They threatened [us] with that they would bomb Wonsan and they would either forcefully rescue the captured ship or destroy it. By now they have desisted from that, for we told them that we were not afraid of their threats and we would retaliate on them for their retaliations. And what was the result? It was that negotiations started in Panmunjeom. We are negotiating with the Americans about the way of the release of the ship, which violated our sovereignty and was captured by us, and its crew. The DPRK has only one demand: the USA should apologize for the violation of law it committed. If it is unwilling to do so, it will not get back either the ship or its crew. We have been feeding and providing for the ship’s crew for over two months. We will make them work off the expenses we appropriated for that. Of course, the negotiations are still going on. For the time being one cannot predict their final result. It seems that the USA sets a too high value on its Great Power prestige, and this is why it does not want to apologize to us. But our determination is just and firm: if the USA does not apologize, we will not give back anything. After all, it was not a ship of the DPRK that was spying along the coasts of the USA but the other way around. Now we are studying what sort of qualifications the various members of the crew of the captured ship have and what sort of useful work we can make them do, for we are treating them all too well.

    […]

    We should never lose sight of one thing: the imperialists use tactics, they plot against us, against all of us, against every force of socialism, they mindlessly arm themselves. In Europe every country save Germany is united and unpartitioned. In Asia the situation is different. In Europe the imperialists attack with so-called peaceful, political methods, with Cold War methods, whereas in Asia they use mainly the tactic of open armed actions and threats. Of course, in Asia they also attack with political methods, not only with arms. They have only one aim all over the world, namely, to subjugate the peoples.

    In our case (in Korea) the imperialists use the tactic of armed threats. The US troops are in South Korea, ready to fling themselves at us. An open armed imperialist aggression is going on against the Vietnamese people. Jiang Jieshi is also inciting [the Chinese population] from Taiwan, he is doing his best to take advantage of the chaotic state of affairs in China. Recently they [the Taiwanese] have dropped a very high number of agents behind [Chinese] lines, and it is very much to be feared that in China events will degenerate into an armed confrontation.

    As for the anti-Mao Zedong forces in China, one should see that these forces are partly indeed local forces, but partly they are external forces sent there and hired by the [clique of] Jiang Jieshi [Chang Kai-shek], and they mix with each other. In our view, at present we [the Communist countries] cannot afford to harp on the mistakes or faults of each other. On the contrary, we are obliged to help each other with every available means and in every form, and to reinforce the anti-imperialist fighting spirit in each other. On the basis of this opinion, we do our best to reinforce the strength, cooperation, and unity of the socialist camp.

    […]

                                                                                                                           István Kádas           

                                                                                                                           (ambassador)