Telegram from Pyongyang to Bucharest, No. 059/219

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

TELEGRAM

Sender: Pyongyang

No.: 059/219

Date: 15.07.1975

During a protocol event on July 12, Vice-Premier Heo Dam [Ho Tam], while referring to the recent US proposal to dissolve the UN headquarters for South Korea, told Ambassador Dumitru Popa the following:

The document is misleading to public opinion worldwide. Presently, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is carefully studying the American proposal and in a very near future will present the UN with its point of view.

Heo Dam mentioned that no point of the US proposal can be accepted as such by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for the following reasons:

- the document is of a “reactionary and misleading” character. The worldwide public opinion could be induced to believe that the Americans are the one wishing for a dismantling of the UN headquarters in South Korea. In reality, the US will keep its presence in this country, while claiming its troops are not foreign. The US proposal aims in fact at obtaining the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’s agreement to US military presence and continuity in South Korea.

- the American proposal aims at making South Korea visible on the international scene and increasing its prestige. Our conversation partner noted that, in its turn, Japan is actively supporting this county, given its strategic importance and the Japanese interests. Moreover, Japan has invested significant capital in South Korea and presently has a good market there for its products.

- the proposal that US and South Korean officers replace the leadership responsible for securing the ceasefire, as well as the presence of Chinese volunteers, would imply that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea accepts interference in its internal affairs from the past of great powers such as the US, the People’s Republic China, and would result in a breach of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’s national independence and sovereignty. At the same time, US troops presence in South Korea would become permanent and implicitly so would “the continued existence of two Koreas.”

- the US has proceeded with presenting its document, knowing that the fall of this year the UN General Assembly will adopt, with overwhelming majority, a resolution favorable to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Heo Dam has mentioned that his country does not see the document as a step back in the US position towards the Korean matter at the UN, and is therefore “a success of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.” In answering a question of the Romanian Ambassador, the Korean Foreign Affairs Minister noted that this year the Democratic People's Republic of Korea would send special delegations to numerous countries in the world, personal representatives of President Kim Il Sung, in order to explain in detail his country’s point of view in the Korean matter, as well as the position the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will adopt during the next UN General Assembly in order to ask for support, prevent the admission into the UN of two Koreas and diminish the effects of South Korean attempts to join the group of non-aligned countries.

Signed: D.Popa