Excerpt from the Embassy Report no. 2296/1954, Registered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as 3002/1954

With the arrival of the new comrades, our activity has expanded. Because we did not take into account our real possibilities in our cultural and administrative work, when we conceived our term plan, some of the tasks could not be completed.

On January 15, comrade Stere and comrade Alexeenco visited the Deputy Minister of Construction to discuss the possibility of constructing the Embassy building. We also visited the president of the Popular Assembly in Pyongyang. We were asked, once more, to give them the list of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers’ Party and of the members of the Romanian government.

Comrade Alexeenco paid a visit to the Third Directorate of the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and asked that the Ministry makes sure in the future that the Romanian wagons with material aid for the Korean people are sent from Romania to the Committee for the Assistance of the Korean War Victims in the DPRK. In a few days’ time we received a positive reply, which we then relayed to Bucharest.

Comrade Ambassador paid two visits to Comrade Susdalev, the Ambassador of the Soviet Union. On both occasions, they discussed the issue of moving to Pyongyang, and the matter of building the future sites of the two embassies. Comrade Susdalev said that they would receive 13 barracks, which they would leave where they were then, and that they did not plan on moving to Pyongyang.

Comrade Stere paid another visit to the Hungarian Embassy to learn about certain technical details concerning the building of the Hungarian Embassy.

He also paid a visit to the Chargé d’affaires of the Polish Embassy, Czerwitzki, to take a look at the barracks they received for the future building of the Polish Embassy.

Before leaving for Romania, comrade Ambassador paid a visit to the diplomats in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and to the Deputy Foreign Minister, Comrade Ri Dong-yeong[sic] The goal of the visit was to learn about certain issues regarding the specialists [sent to North Korea] and the delivery of [construction] materials from people’s democracies [in Eastern Europe].

Comrade Pastor said, among other things, that the Hungarian specialists who would build a few factories in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as part of the aid Hungary is giving [to North Korea], would start arriving in June 1954 and that at the same time, a specialist who would work for the Embassy would also arrive, to take care of the coordination of Hungarian specialists in North Korea.

Comrade Franta Iosif, the new Chargé d’affaires of the Czechoslovak Embassy, paid us a courtesy visit and asked us when we were planning on moving to Pyongyang. He said that their barracks for the Embassy building were on their way and that they did not start the work because they lacked the necessary work force and building materials, such as cement, bricks etc., which had been promised by the Korean authorities.

We organized two dinner parties this term. The first took place on January 24 and was given in the honor of comrade Susdalev, the Ambassador of the USSR. The second dinner was given [in honor] of comrade Nam Il, the Minister of Foreign Affairs [of the DPRK]. Comrades Ri Dong-yeong[sic] the Deputy Foreign Minister, and Kim Ion Din[sic], Deputy Foreign Minister, together with their wives, also attended.  

We made two trips this term: the first trip to Panmunjeom as guests of the Czechoslovak Embassy to the Neutral Repatriation Commission, about which we already sent you a brief report, and a second trip to Wonsan, which is a port to the Sea of Japan, together with the Chargé d’affaires of the Hungarian Embassy.

We attended, as guests, the debates of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which took place in January, and the country-level gathering of the Top-Ranking Workers in Agriculture which took place in Pyongyang in February.

To keep the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed about the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, we aimed at writing a report which reflects the class struggle in its current phase. We have not yet written this report, because so far we have not found enough material.

In our cultural work, we had planned to organize a film gala, an exhibit showcasing folk art objects. We could not do it because the films did not arrive on time, also the exhibit could not be arranged because we lacked the necessary space, which had been promised to us by the Korean comrades. The photos displayed in factories in Wonsan were visited by approximately 8,000 workers. The cultural group of our medical team performed in a factory in Pyongyang.

The DPRK press published 18 articles about Romania, one of which was signed by a female worker who spent her vacation in Romania, and 5 of those articles reflected various aspects of the activity of our medical team.

In a discussion we had at the Ministry of Culture and Propaganda, we were told not to give our articles directly to the news rooms of various newspapers, but to give them through the News Department in this Ministry.

The main shortage in our news liaison work for this term was the fact that we did not check the work of the translators well enough.

We talked to the North Korean and Chinese authorities about the delivery of the wagons sent from Romanian for [our] hospital, because they were dispatched to the wrong address.

We had to repair the engine of the Pobeda car, and other small repairs for the Gaz car and the Dodge, without which we could not do our work properly. We would like to mention that the repairs for these cars were made in the workshop of our medical team in Nampo.

Shortcomings in our administrative work. Comrade Pop is not sufficiently taking care of coordinating and training the Korean staff, especially with respect to cleanliness and other issues.

With a view to successfully completing the tasks, we held a work meeting at the end of each month, and at the end of the trimester, we held a work analysis meeting. We pointed out a series of shortcomings, such as the insufficient collaboration between various sections, and between various services, as it was the case with comrade Florescu and comrade Neamu, between comrade Enache and comrade Pop.

With a view to informing ourselves about the situation in the DPRK, comrade Florescu could not do much because comrade Alexeenco and comrade Neamu only translated a small part of the necessary materials.

There was no regular control over the work of the sections [of the Embassy], nor was there enough collaboration between the comrades.