TELEGRAM 027.411 from the Romanian Embassy in Cairo to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

TELEGRAM 027.411

To: the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (to comrade Constantin Oancea)

From: the Romanian Embassy in Cairo

Date: May 17^th, 1978

Classification: Secret

Yu Jae-han [sic], counselor of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Embassy, talked with counselor Dediu about his recent visit to Cyprus where he had the task to discuss the problem of establishing diplomatic relations between Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Cyprus, with the competent authorities.

On the occasion of his arrival, the minister of foreign affairs informed him that, basically, the Cypriot government agreed to establish diplomatic relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

However, before the decision is adopted some formalities that require 2-3 months must be met. The Cypriot minister promised that he would discuss this problem again with his Korean counterpart, on the occasion of the Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade, after which he hoped that diplomatic relations would have been established between the two countries.

The Cypriot minister of foreign affairs informed the Korean diplomat that the government of South Korea had proposed to establish diplomatic relations with Cyprus four times in the last years but the proposals had been refused by the government of Cyprus.

Counselor Han [sic] said that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Embassy in Cairo talked to the Moroccan authorities about the problem of establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, and the Moroccan government agreed to establish diplomatic relations with Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The relations between Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Egypt have been developing well in the last years, in all fields of activity; however the Egyptian government is allowing the development of relations with South Korea, including at the political level. Recently, the president of the South Korean parliament made an official visit in Cairo, even though in the discussions [I have had] with officials at the People’s Assembly, it was denied that such visit could take place in Egypt.

After the visit, the Egyptian officials did not want to inform the North Korean diplomats about the problems that were discussed with the president of the South Korean government, however, it is not likely that the Egyptian government intends to establish diplomatic relations with South Korea.

Signed

Petre Burlacu