Record of Conversation between Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov and North Korean Ambassador to the Soviet Union Kim Byeong-jik

RECORD OF CONVERSATION BETWEEN V.V. KUZNETSOV AND NORTH KOREAN AMBASSADOR TO THE USSR Kim Byeong-sik [Kim Pyong Sik]

April 17, 1965

Kim Byeong-sik  informed [Kuznetsov] about the situation in South Korea and the demonstrations there against the Japanese-South Korean negotiations.

This [protest] movement, said Kim Byeong-sik, is directed by an underground branch of the Korean Worker’s Party, which is not “yet sufficiently strong.” Under such circumstances, the main task is awakening the conscience of the workers and peasants and organizing them.[ …]

Opposition parties also take part in the movement against the Japanese-South Korean talks. They, of course, have their own goals, and they do not speak out in the interests of the people. However, we intend to use their activities. […]

Of course, sooner or later, the treaty on normalization of Japanese-South Korean relations will be signed. But our task is to delay the ratification for as long as possible, and to educate and unite the people’s masses in the course of the extensive movement for breaking off the negotiations. […]

Kim Byeong-sik thanked V.V. Kuznetsov for the Soviet support of the DPRK in this question [of opposition to the Japanese-South Korean talks], because “it is better one time to publish materials in Pravda than a hundred times in the Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun, since the whole world reads Pravda.”