Telegram, Embassy of Hungary in Czechoslovakia to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry

[…]

According to the information received from the competent desk officer of the F[oreign] M[inistry] of this place, the ambassador of the DPRK officially requested the publication of government or FM statements with regard to both issues. The FM made a promise to take measures with regard to the issue of the Koreans living in Japan, but they do not intend to keep it. The CTK [Czechoslovak news agency] published the declaration of the DPRK FM, but the Czechoslovak press virtually ignored it. Due to the long time that has passed since then, they will not make a change in that; they consider the issue closed.

Concerning the [April 12-14] session of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the ambassador asked for propaganda support primarily with regard to the South Korean elections, mainly “for describing the huge demonstrations of the patriotic forces,” by which he meant the student demonstrations in Seoul. The FM was of the opinion that of his requests, only the holding of a small student meeting was feasible; they do not intend to take further steps with regard to this issue either.

The desk officer said that they [the Czechoslovaks] are increasingly worried that parallel to the consolidation of its internal economic situation, the DPRK is again coming closer and closer to the Chinese standpoint. Several signs indicate that in Czechoslovakia the DPRK Embassy is assuming the role previously played by the Chinese Embassy. In recent months the embassy’s propaganda activity has multiplied, and in several cases it took an aggressive form. For instance, they inundate a wide variety of social and state institutions, and even private persons, with a mass of materials mailed in provincial post offices, using lists of addresses that were collected from telephone directories. In the letters attached to the ideological materials, they invariably ask the addressees to reply. They also multiplied their trips to the countryside, which they do by evading [the control of] the FM. Taking the aforesaid issues into consideration, the desk [recently] started drawing up a plan for restrictive measures to be prepared on the basis of mutuality.

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