Letter from Kim Il Sung to Enver Hoxha

To the First Secretary of the Albanian Labor Party

Central Committee

Comrade Enver Hoxha

Tirana

Dear Comrade Enver Hoxha,

Seeing with great delight how the brotherly relations of friendship and cooperation between the parties, governments, and peoples of our two countries are developing well from one day to the next, I send to You, and through You, to the ALP [Party of Labour of Albania], the Government, and the Albanian people our most heartfelt greetings.

I would like to express to You, the CC [Central Committee] of Your party, and the Government your deepest gratitude for the fact that in the international area, including at the UN, Your country is waging an active campaign in support of the great cause of our people for the reunification of our fatherland, and has taken the necessary measures to show its strong solidarity and support for the letter we have sent to the parliaments and governments of all the countries of the world, approved in the second session of the Supreme Peoples’ Assembly of the Fifth Legislature of our country.

I take this chance to express my desire to inform You, and through You the CC [Central Committee] of Your party and the Government of Your country, on the situation that has lately been created in our country in relation to the five point program for the peaceful reunification of the country that we recently published.

Over time the division of Korea causes ever more pain and suffering to our people, who during thousands-of-years old history have always lived as a single people, and also creates problem for the issue of the preservation of peace and security in Asia and the world over.

The United States of America has been for 28 years imposing the division of the territory of the country and the breakup of our nation to our people. Now, by using their two-faced tactics they are trying to urge Koreans against Koreans, to consolidate the division of Korea for eternity, and to fabricate two separate Koreas.

Following the letter of these machinations of the USA, the South Korean officials are working hard toward a “confrontation” between the South and the North; they are placing all their forces to the increase of their military capacity, and are continually using scheming to eternalize the division of the country.

Lately, they have gone so far as to make the plan for the creation of the two Koreas their policy and to openly announce a course of division for the country.

Due to all these facts, and despite our continuous attempts for the independent and peaceful reunification of the country, we do not see, at the moment, the necessary progress in talks between the South and the North; the previously miraculous perspectives for the reunification of the Fatherland that were presented to our nation a year ago when the Common Declaration of the North and the South was proclaimed are now becoming darker by the day.

At a time when within and outside the country, one can see the unusual tendency for the eternalizing of the division of the country, based on the sincere aspiration for overcoming the present difficulties and on the desire to accomplish as soon as possible our national aspiration – the peaceful reunification of the Fatherland – on June 23 of this year, we, once again proclaimed our program for the peaceful and independent reunification of the country:

First, we propose to liquidate the situation of military confrontation and elimination of the tensions between the South and the North.

The liquidation of the situation of military confrontation and elimination of the tensions between the South and the North is at the moment the most pressing and key issue to the necessity of the removal of misunderstandings and lack of trust, the deepening of the understanding and trust between the North and the South, the creation of an atmosphere of a great national reunification, the amelioration of the atmosphere between the North and the South, and the achievement of the peaceful reunification of the country.

For as long as the knife remains hidden under the jacket, it will not be possible to create an atmosphere of mutual trust and to successfully solve the problem of cooperation and exchange between the North and the South.

That is why as a first step toward the peaceful reunification of the country, we have approached more than once the authorities of South Korea with proposals for a freeze to the increase of the armed forces and the armament race between us, for the removal of all the foreign troops, the reduction of the armies and the armaments, a stop to the delivery of armaments from abroad, and the conclusion of a peace agreement.

Secondly, we have presented the proposal for the achievement of multileveled cooperation and for trade between the North and the South in the different fields of politics, military arts, diplomacy, economy, and culture.

We think that the initiation of the multileveled cooperation and trade between the South and the North has a great importance for the eventual re-linking of the national relations that have been cut, for the amelioration of the relations between the North and the South, and the creation of the necessary premises for reunification.

We reiterated once more that the South Korean officials should not rely on external forces, but should, instead, accept the development of the economy in the interest of our entire nation through the course of mutual exploitation of the natural resources of the country and the achievement of the national cooperation in all the fields.

Thirdly, we proposed giving to the various layers of the population of the North and the South at large the chance to take part in the patriotic, national process in the name of the reunification of the Fatherland.

We think that as long as the reunification of the Fatherland is a cause that must be exclusively solved on the basis of a common willingness of the entire people of the North and the South Korea, the dialogue between the North and the South should not be limited only to the circle of the representatives of the authorities of the South and the North, but must be brought down to the level of the entire nation.

For that reason, we proposed the gathering a great National Assembly comprised of various layers of the population, political parties, and social organizations of the North and the South, the free discussion of the issues, and the solution, through it, of the issue of the reunification of the country according to the will and desires of our people.

Fourthly, we proposed once again the establishment of a confederation of the South and the North under the name of a single state—The Confederative Republic of Goryeo.

The gathering of the great National Assembly and the achievement of the great national consolidation, and the establishment on this basis of a confederative system, all the while keeping for a determined time the two different systems that exist in the North and in the South, is considered by us as the most rational course for the achievement of the reunification of the country.

We have proposed that, should a confederative system comprised of the South and the North be established, this confederative state be called the Confederative Republic of Goryeo, bringing back the name of Goryeo, which is widely known to the world as the only state that has existed in the territory of our nation.

Fifthly, we have presented the proposal that the North and the South operate jointly in their foreign relations with the intention of preempting the consolidation of the division and the eternal separation of our nation into two Koreas.

Our nation, a single nation, which during our thousands of years of history has existed and continues to exist as a single culture and a single language, cannot be left to live separated into two parts.

We think that for the preemption of an eternal division of the country into a northern and a southern part, we must also jointly take steps in the field of the foreign affairs.

In the field of the international relations with other countries, we are also resolutely opposed to every attempt to exploit them for the fabrication of two separate Koreas.

We insist that the South and the North should not become separate members of the UN, and think that if they want to become members of the UN before the achievement of the reunification of the country, we must enter as a single state, with the name of a single state – the Confederative Republic of Goryeo – only after the establishment, at the very least, of a confederative system

But we are also of the opinion that, aside from the issue of the membership to the UN, whenever the issues related to Korea are included in the daily agenda or are discussed at the UN, the representative of the DPR of Korea, as a directly interested party, should be invited to take part.

We also think that all of our proposals are acceptable to all; they are the most rational and the most practical proposals that represent the immediate aspiration of the entire people of Korea, who seek to stop the division of the country, to completely improve their life, to improve the relations between the South and the North, and to achieve as soon as possible the reunification of the country and to further the cause of the day – independence and peace.

Now it has become easily clear who sincerely desires peace and reunification in Korea, and who really desires war and division.

I express my confidence that Your party, government, and people will pay a great deal of attention to the present situation in our country and will take active measures of various forms in support of the new course of the Government of the DPR of Korea for the achievement of the reunification of the country without any interference from abroad, in an independent way, on a democratic basis, and in a peaceful way.

I express my conviction that the close relations of friendship and cooperation that we have established between the parties, governments, and peoples of our two countries, will in the future, as in the past, be strengthened and developed ceaselessly on the basis of the principles of Marxism – Leninism and of proletarian internationalism. I wish You with all my heart good health and new successes in Your work in general.

Friendly greetings,

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of

The Korean Workers’ Party

Kim Il Sung

Pyongyang, on 7 July, 1973