Telegram from Szabó Ferenc, 'Information from the Korean charge d’affaires on their ten-point proposal for reunification'

Regional Division IV
Szabó Ferenc
00798/10/1980

Top Secret!
Produced in 10 copies for:
-        Comrade Puja
-        Comrade Nagy J.
-        Comrade Házi
-        Comrade Hollai
-        HSWP Central Committee Foreign Division
-        Comrade Bányász
-        Comrade Monori
-        Comrade Szűcsné
-        Pyongyang
-        Own usage

Record

Subject: Information from the Korean charge d’affaires on their ten-point proposal for reunification

I received the DPRK’s temporary charge d’affaires on November 3 at his request, who “commented” on the “new” ten-point suggestion for the unification of their country proposed during the their party’s 6th Congress within the Central Committee report, following the orders of his Center.

He emphasized that they have also previously suggested the creation of a Confederative Republic as a solution for reunification, but they had not concretized their ideas regarding the roles of the North and the South before.

The essentials of their new initiative is that the different social systems and ideologies would remain the same in North and South Korea, but – according to their suggestion – both parts of the peninsula would take part on an equal footing in their unified national government.

Local governments would be established in the North and the South, which operate completely equally and independently from each other.

From representatives corresponding to the number of Koreans living in the North, South, and abroad, they would set up a “Supreme Federative National Council”, which would then elect its “Standing Committee” from among its representatives. The “local governments” would be controlled by the latter.

The “Standing Committee” would decide on important questions in the political life of the country, foreign affairs policies, national defense, and all other significant issues of internal affairs.

Internally, the “Standing Committee” would control and facilitate the collaboration of the North and the South, would help to grow the parts of the country closer. Externally, it is intended to represent one state: the “Democratic Confederate Republic of Goryeo (DCRG)”.

The DCRG – according to the proposal – cannot take part in any military alliance, consequently it has to pursue a policy of neutrality. A policy of neutrality – said the charge d’affaires – as it would represent different political systems in the North and the South, and as such, it would not be able to participate in any military blocs either.

It would embody the whole Korea in its foreign policy, therefore one delegation would represent the country in its diplomatic activities in the UN, and in other international organizations and events. According to their idea, the DCRG would be a pacifist country that would build good relations with all other countries around the world. Foreign bases and troops would not be allowed on its territory, through which it would become a region of peace without any nuclear weaponry.

The charge d’affairs requested that one of the leaders of our party and government should officially support the aforementioned proposal via our press. He justified his request due to the novelty of their suggestion.

[Handwritten note: It is difficult to support such bullshit! And the suggestion is not new!]

Expressing my thanks for his information I emphasized that we were following the work of the party congress through the report of our delegation, and from the materials of our communication services. The Korean report and activity of our delegation have been approved by our party’s Political Bureau.

Our delegation was able to personally ascertain the wonderful economic successes of the Korean people, and the monolithic unity of their nation in following Comrade Kim Il Sung.

I pointed out about their reunification suggestion that according to our assessment, there is nothing new or different in their proposal, they have merely supplemented their previous suggestions and made them more concrete. They went to the limit of their possibilities with their suggestion. The current obstacles in moving forward are the American troops stationed in the South, and the terror suppressing democratization.

Regarding ideological support, we find the socialist building in the North very promising, whereas concerning the South, the priority is the withdrawal of the foreign troops stationed there.

I promised to forward his information to our leaders, and to notify our Main Press Department about the aforementioned reunification ideas.

When discussing the importance of our highest possible ranked greeting that we conveyed to their party’s congress, and which they published in the Korean press, I complained to the charge d’affaires about the unusual and incomprehensible behavior of their deputy military attache and their first secretary towards the leader of the Hungarian Defense Alliance of Eger. I stressed that he was conveying the greetings of Comrade Kádár János toward Comrade Kim Il Sung, expressing the greetings of our party and the entire Hungarian society. Various individual letters reduce the value of this letter, therefore we think that they are unnecessary. I pointed out that the Korean side would also find a similar conduct of our Pyongyang embassy unacceptable as well. I strongly asked the Korean diplomat to talk to their embassy and make sure that similar incidents would not happen in the future from their part.

The Korean charge d’affaires did not respond anything meaningful, he tried to make the impression that he is hearing of the incident for the first time. He only said that “…he understands my remark”.

In the roughly 1 hour meeting, one of the embassy’s colleagues, and Korean referent Comrade Rátkai Ferenc participated as well.

Budapest, 1980 November 5
Szabó Ferenc