From the Journal of N.G. Sudarikov, Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK, 'Record of a Conversation with General Secretary of the CC and Chairman of the DPRK Cabinet of Ministers, Kim Il Sung'

[CPSU CC stamp: 40929

15 December 1969 Korea]

SECRET

Copy Nº 3

SOVIET EMBASSY IN THE DPRK

2 December 1969

Nº 410

from the journal of

N. G. Sudarikov

RECORD OF A CONVERSATION

with General Secretary of the CC and Chairman of the DPRK Cabinet of Ministers, KIM IL SUNG

18 November 1969

I was received by Kim Il Sung at my request.

1. In accordance with instructions I passed Kim Il Sung a personal letter of L. I. Brezhnev which contains a suggestion about a possible timeframe for the arrival in the Soviet Union of Pak Seong-cheol, who is a KWP CC Politburo member, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, and DPRK Minister of Foreign Affairs, and stressed the great importance attached to this visit by the Soviet side.

In addition, I informed Kim Il Sung of the progress of our conversations with Pak Seong-cheol about coordinating a mutually acceptable date for his arrival, in the course of which we noted that we highly appreciate Pak Seong-cheol’s intention to visit the Soviet Union and that he will be given a proper greeting as a guest of the Soviet government.

I informed Kim Il Sung about the very important events which will be held during these days in Moscow, and stressed that by virtue of the workload of the CPSU and Soviet government leadership in the Soviet Union they could not receive Pak Seong-cheol at the times he proposed.

[Translator’s note: there is a stamp at the end of the first page stating that “the material is informative and the CPSU CC Department has been familiarized with [it]. 15D/6, 5 August 1970. [to the] archives]”.

Kim Il Sung received the content of the letter with great satisfaction. He said, we are grateful that Cde. L. I. Brezhnev is personally paying great attention to the visit of Pak Seong-cheol to the Soviet Union. Pak Seong-cheol is not healthy right now and is resting. Because of illness he has changed his initial plans and put off a trip to Syria. I think that he will soon regain [his] health and go to Moscow during those timeframes which were indicated in Cde. L. I. Brezhnev’s letter, that is, between 8 and 15 December of this year. During the visit Pak Seong-cheol will inform the Soviet leaders of the views of our Party and pass on other information.

For our part, we would be grateful to find out through Pak Seong-cheol the CPSU’s  and the Soviet government’s opinion on various questions.

Again, please pass our heartfelt gratitude to Cde. L. I. Brezhnev for attaching such great importance to this visit and inform [him] that Pak Seong-cheol is going to the Soviet Union in the timeframes proposed by Cde. L. I. Brezhnev.

I asked whether it could be understood that the question of the timeframes of the visit of Pak Seong-cheol to the Soviet Union be finally decided.

Kim Il Sung replied affirmatively.

I thanked Kim Il Sung and said that I would inform Moscow about this.

2. In accordance with instructions I informed Kim Il sung about the results of the visit to the Soviet Union of a Party-government delegation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam headed by WPV [Worker’s Party of Vietnam] CC Politburo member and Prime Minister of the DRV government Pham Van Dong.

Kim Il Sung expressed gratitude for the detailed information. He noted, we are also very glad that Pham Van Dong visited the Soviet Union and that good results were achieved in the course of the talks. Such a development of relations between the USSR and DRV and the CPSU and WPV pleases us. We also receive with satisfaction the fact that the Soviet Union is giving great assistance to the comrades. This is our common Party and Communist cause.

I noted that it coincided there that I am providing information about the visit to the Soviet Union of a DRV Party-government delegation on the eve of the arrival in Pyongyang of a Vietnamese delegation headed by Cde. Le Thanh Nghi. I said that we would gratefully receive information about the results of the visit of the Vietnamese comrades to the DPRK, and also about the visits of other delegations which were recently in Pyongyang.

Kim Il Sung promised to provide information about the results of the talks with the DRV delegation and the other delegations.

3. In the course of the conversation I passed Cde. Kim Il sung greetings and good wishes from Cdes. L. I. Brezhnev, N. V. Podgornyy, A. N. Kosygin, and D. S. Polyansky. I stressed that the leaders of the Party and Soviet government regarded all questions connected with Korea with great attention, and highly appreciate the forward movement which is taking place in Soviet-Korean relations. I told [my] interlocutor briefly about the life of our country and Party, and the foreign policy activity of the CPSU CC and Soviet government.

Having expressed gratitude for the good wishes and attention to Korea Kim Il Sung in turn asked that best regards be passed to Cdes. L. I. Brezhnev, N. V. Podgornyy, and A. N. Kosygin.

Making use of this occasion, he said, he would like to pass [his] gratitude to Cde. D. S. Polyansky for the great attention which he has personally shown to Kim Man-geum, the Chairman of the Agriculture Committee of the DPRK, during his stay in Moscow. Kim Man-geum reported the results of the trip, and noted its great usefulness. He was quite thankful that he had comprehensive conversations with Cde. D. S. Polyansky and USSR Minister of Agriculture Cde. Matskevich.

I said that we received with satisfaction the report that Kim Man-geum will be present at the All-Union Congress of Collective Farm Workers.

I noted that DPRK Minister of National Defense Choe Hyon had recently visited the Soviet Union.

Kim Il Sung said, he, too, expressed his satisfaction about this trip. Choe Hyon and all of us are satisfied with that good reception which he was given by USSR Minister of Defense Cde. A. A. Grechko.

For some reason Soviet military comrades do not come to us, to Korea, although we invited Cde. A. A. Grechko and Cde. M. V. Zakharov.

We wholeheartedly vote for their visit to us.

I noted the importance and usefulness of personal contacts of the senior officials of our countries. I said that for our part we are grateful to the KWP and DPRK government for the warm reception which greet Soviet delegations in Pyongyang. In particular, USSR Minister of Internal Affairs N. A. Shchelokov expressed great satisfaction with [his] recent trip to the DPRK.

Kim Il Sung said that he knows about this visit. Minister of Public Security Kim Ben-ha [sic; proper Korean spelling unknown] reported to him about the results of the conversations with Cde. Shchelokov. At this time, noted Kim Il Sung, I was in Hamhung and Chongjin, dealing with questions of the construction which is going on there. Consequently I was unfortunately unable to meet with Cde. Shchelokov, although I knew about the wishes he expressed regarding a meeting with me, and I charged Choe Yong-geon with receiving Cde. Shchelokov and talking with him.

In conclusion Kim Il Sung again asked [me] to pass [his] best wishes to the leaders of the CPSU and Soviet government.

Heo Dam [Ho Dam], Deputy DPRK Minister of Foreign Affairs, Choe Won-sik, Chief of a KWP CC sector, and First Secretary of the Embassy A. D. Putivets were present at the conversation

SOVIET AMBASSADOR IN THE DPRK [signature]

(N. Sudarikov)

5-at

1 – to Cde. K. F. Katushev

2 – to Cde. A. A. Gromyko

3 – to Cde. K. V. Rusakov

4 – to Cde. V. I. Likhachev

5 – to file

Nº 797

1 December 1969

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