Telegram from the Hungarian Embassy in Pyongyang, 'The Korean Workers’ Party’s 4th Congress'

223/1961
Fendler Károly
EMBASSY OF THE HUNGARIAN PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC

Record

Subject: The Korean Worker’s Party’s 4th Congress

There have been no big personnel changes in the leading organs of the Korean Worker’s Party Central Committee – Political Bureau and Secretariat. The 4th Congress changed the previous Council of the Central Committee to a Political Bureau but left the positions of chairman and vice chairman intact. They are equivalent to the positions of secretary general and secretary respectively.

Members of the 11-member Political Bureau are:

Kim Il Sung, Choe Yong-geon, Kim Il, Park Geum-cheol, Lee Hyo-sun, Kim Chang-man, Park Jeong-ae, Kim Gwang-hyeop, Jeong Il-yong, Nam Il, Lee Jong-ok.

Kim Ik-seong, Lee Ju-yong, Ha An-cheong, and Ha San-du have been elected as alternate members.

From the previous Political Bureau, only Comrade Rim Hae was left out. He was first the Foreign Trade, then the Agricultural Minister. Rim Hae did not appear in public during the last couple months at all. We have heard from various trusted sources that during summer in a session of the cabinet, Comrade Kim Il Sung was criticizing Rim Hae: despite being a member of the Political Bureau, he did not fully understand the policy of the party, and his progress was lagging behind the events as well. He also had failed to adequately spread some of the modern agricultural methods prescribed by the party. After all this, Rim Hae did not participate on the 4th Congress, and has not been appointed as a member of the Central Committee either. Instead of him, Comrade Lee Jong-ok, Chairman of the Heavy Industry Committee, and Vice Prime Minister, became the eleventh Politburo member, who had only been an alternate member of the Politburo previously.

Vice Chairmen of the Central Committee are: Choe Yong-geon, Kim Il, Park Geum-cheol, Kim Chang-man, and Lee Hyo-sun. Here, there has been only one change in personnel: instead of Comrade Park Jeong-ae, Comrade Kim Il, the first deputy of the Prime Minister has been elected as a Vice Chairman (Secretary) of the Central Committee. Comrade Park Jeong-ae has been previously involved in agriculture in the Political Bureau. She was elected as Agricultural Minister right before the 4th Congress in place of the dismissed Rim Hae, and it was expected that she would not keep two leading positions (Politburo member, and Central Committee Vice Chairman).

Pyongyang, 1961 September 20