TELEGRAM 066.644 from the Romanian Embassy in Pyongyang to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

TELEGRAM 066.644

To: the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Comrade Ion Ciubotaru)

From: the Romanian Embassy in Pyongyang

Date: April 22^nd, 1978

Classification: Secret

In a conversation with A. Bulcu, G. Kuti, the Second Secretary of the Hungarian Embassy in Pyongyang, informed the Romanian diplomat that the President of the Central Committee of the Japanese Socialist Party, Asukata, will arrive in Pyongyang in the next few days. This visit of the new leader of the JSP – after his recent visit to Beijing in March 1978, has the following two objectives:

First, he intends to obtain the agreement of the North Koreans to extend the agreement signed on September 1977 in Pyongyang, between a Japanese parliamentary delegation and the Korean authorities, regarding the permission for the Japanese ships to fish in the territorial waters of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in the 200-mine economic area. Because the validity of the agreement signed last year expires on June 30^th, the Japanese government hopes to convince the Korean authorities, with Asukata’s help, to allow Japanese ships to continue their activities in the territorial waters of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Secondly, his presence in Pyongyang is a great opportunity for the Korean authorities to accomplish an important foreign policy objective of the Korean government – organizing the second International Conference of Solidarity with the fight of the Korean people for the of the country in Tokyo, this fall. Since there are clues that the Japanese government does not approve of organizing this meeting, the Korean authorities are concerned but also determined to do anything in their power to organize this meeting in Tokyo as it was decided at the ending of the first meeting that took place last year in Brussels.

Given the situation, the Korean authorities will condition the extension of the fishing agreement on the agreement of the Japanese government regarding the organization of second international meeting regarding the Korean problem.

Signed

Dumitru Popa