Memorandum, Hungarian Foreign Ministry

During his trip to the Far East, András Gyenes visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, too. In the course of the conversations, the Korean attendants of the delegation said the following about the Yugoslav-DPRK relationship:

The DPRK intends to develop its relations with every socialist country, even with Yugoslavia, which they do not consider a socialist country. Last year the Yugoslav ambassador in Warsaw contacted the DPRK embassy in order to establish a direct relationship between the two countries. For a similar purpose, in 1969 a Yugoslav commercial representative in Beijing and a high-ranking diplomat of the Yugoslav embassy in Prague asked for entry visas [to North Korea]. At that time, the Korean leadership was of the opinion that it was inopportune to answer the Yugoslav request. By now, however, the situation has changed.

The Korean attendants also said that the Korean Workers’ Party and the DPRK, having taken the proposals of the fraternal Spanish and Italian [Communist] parties into consideration, are ready to establish interstate relations with Yugoslavia. Recently [the Yugoslavs] requested entry visas for high-ranking officials (possibly a delegation) of the Yugoslav Foreign Secretariat, and the Korean side granted [the request]. A delegation (or delegate) of the Yugoslav F[oreign] M[inistry] is scheduled to arrive in Pyongyang in the near future. “As is well-known,” they said, “China and Vietnam have normalized their relations with Yugoslavia, and in the recent years Yugoslavia actively fought for the DPRK’s interests (UN, international sports organizations, and so on).”

[…]        

József Oláh

assistant under-secretary