Skip to content

March 29, 1962

Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry

This document was made possible with support from Leon Levy Foundation

On 29 March, Com. Reuter, the press attaché of the German Embassy, paid a visit to Com. Fendler, and informed him about the conversation that had recently taken place between Com. Provisional Chargé d’Affaires Stark and Com. Pak, head of the F[oreign] M[inistry]’s First Department.  

 

For the latter’s information, Com. Stark handed the copy of the memorandum written by the GDR government on the German question to Com. Pak. In the course of the conversation, Com. Pak dwelt at length upon the fact that the Korean situation greatly differed from that of Germany, [because] in Korea, as opposed to Germany, there did not exist two states but only one, and the armistice demarcation line could not be considered a border [emphasis in the original]. (Com. Reuter emphasized that the conversation had been initiated by the departmental head.)

 

Concerning the peaceful coexistence [emphasis in the original] of the two Germanies, Com. Pak remarked that in Korea, other methods were needed, “we cannot wait until the population of South Korea starves to death!” With regard to that, he also mentioned that economic competition was not the best method, and “class struggle is inseparable from war.”

 

In the course of the conversation, the quotations from Lenin which had been published in Nodong Sinmun several times, and the issue of revisionism cropped up. Com. Pak stated that due to the great distance [between the two countries], Yugoslav revisionism had not affected Korea, and that time they (Korea) were occupied in fighting dogmatism. Now the situation has changed, because “the revisionist danger is close to us, the wind of revisionism is blowing toward us from all the four cardinal points, from South Korea, Japan, and another direction”.

 

[…]

 

                                                                                                                       József Kovács

                                                                                                                       Ambassador

 

Report on a conversation between GDR Provisional Chargé d’Affaires Stark and Com. Pak, head of the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s First Department. The two compared divided Germany with divided Korea.

Author(s):


Document Information

Source

MOL, XIX-J-1-j Korea, 8. doboz, 5/f, 004108/1962. Translated for NKIDP by Balazs Szalontai.

Rights

The History and Public Policy Program welcomes reuse of Digital Archive materials for research and educational purposes. Some documents may be subject to copyright, which is retained by the rights holders in accordance with US and international copyright laws. When possible, rights holders have been contacted for permission to reproduce their materials.

To enquire about this document's rights status or request permission for commercial use, please contact the History and Public Policy Program at [email protected].

Original Uploaded Date

2012-06-25

Type

Memorandum of Conversation

Language

Record ID

114543

Donors

Leon Levy Foundation