Journal of Soviet Ambassador in the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 25 July 1960

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Concerning the South of Korea. No big events have occurred recently in South Korea. Elections to the National Assembly are set for 29 July. In Kim Il Sung's opinion, possibly up to 35 deputies from newly-organized parties who are associated with and under the influence of the KWP CC will be elected to the new National Assembly. The largest newly-organized parties in the South of Korea are the Socialist Masses Party and the Socialist Party, which has ties with and is under some influence of the KWP.

Kim Il Sung also said that the KWP CC had organized a Central Bureau for South Korean Issues for the quick resolution of issues connected with South Korea. The Chairman of the Bureau is Ri Hyo-sun, Deputy Chairman of the KWP CC and member of the KWP CC Presidium, and Deputy Chairman of the Bureau is Seo Cheol, former Chief of the Political Directorate of the Army. Three KWP CC department chiefs are Bureau members: the Department of Communications, the Department of Culture, and the Department for External Issues (the establishment of ties with South Korea through various countries, mainly through Japan). He also noted that Ri Hyo-sun will simultaneously remain Chairman of the CC of the United Trade Unions in order to have the opportunity to go to capitalist countries while occupying this post. In particular, a delegation of Korean trade unions headed by Ri Hyo-sun has been invited and will go to a congress of Japanese trade unions set for the near future.

I informed Kim Il Sung that, as has become known, during President Eisenhower's visit to South Korea in June of this year the Soviet Representative to the UN [sic, the insertion of a reference to the Soviet Representative here seems to be in error] candidate for Prime Minister Jang Myeon presented him with a special memorandum about the future of Korea. This memorandum provides for holding elections in South and North Korea under UN observation and also requests the US government's help to join the United Nations and to increase economic aid to the country.

I asked Kim Il Sung whether the group of former deputies to the National Assembly of South Korea taken to the DPRK during the war is doing any work.

Kim Il Sung replied that this group does not do any work, and the majority of them are old men.

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