Journal of Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK V. I. Ivanov for 4 December 1955

SOVIET EMBASSY IN THE DPRK        

Secret

Copy Nº 3

[USSR MFA Far East Department stamp:

[[4865]]s

31 Dec 55]

JOURNAL

OF SOVIET AMBASSADOR IN THE DPRK Cde. V. I. IVANOV

for the period from 4 through 15 December

1955

Pyongyang 1955

01263

4 December

I received in my apartment Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Pak Ui-wan and Minister of Construction Kim Sung-hwa who, in their words, being close by decided to simply drop in.

The question of the laying of the foundation of the Embassy building was touched on in the conversation. Kim Sung-hwa said in connection with this that according to the design the Embassy foundation should be laid with the use of steel reinforcement. However, they do not have such iron, in connection with which the start of the foundation laying is being delayed.

I replied that insofar as we know it is planned to lay the foundation without steel reinforcement. I promised to find this out and inform him.

Further in the conversation Pak and Kim reported that the KWP CC plenum which had concluded had gone actively. The plenum had confirmed the KWP CC decision about expelling Pak Il-u and Kim Yeol from the Party, and both were expelled from CC membership.

Touching on the issue of Kim Yeol, they said that when they reported about him at the plenum they, as Soviet Koreans, were extremely uncomfortable to hear about the behavior of Kim Yeol, who was also a Soviet Korean and who had wasted state funds and had led a dissolute life. True, his behavior traces to the period when he was chairman of KWP provincial committees in the provinces of South Hamgyeong and Hwanghae (then still not divided into South and North).

In conclusion Kim Il Sung sharply criticized the group of Soviet Koreans of Jeong Ryul, Song Jin-hwa, Jeong Gwang-rok, Gi Seok-pok, and Jeong Jun-taek who, in his words, introduced discord in the midst of Korean writers. Their fault was that they had spoken favorably of the works of writer Ri Tae-jun, who had come over from the South and later turned out to be involved with the group of Ri Seung-yeop. At the same time they criticized the works of writer Han Seol-ya. They had not criticized their own mistakes up to now as concerned Han Seol-ya, although recently they had not spoken out against him, but they had suppressed his creative work.

[...]

SOVIET AMBASSADOR IN THE DPRK [signature] (V. IVANOV)

Four copies

1 - Cde. Molotov

2 - Cde. Fedorenko

3 - Cde. Kurdyukov

4 - to file

Drafted by Ivanov

Printed M/B [SIC]

Nº 854

21 December 1955