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February 2, 1980

Telegram from the Romanian Embassy in Pyongyang to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, February 2, 1980, 057040, Secret

This document was made possible with support from ROK Ministry of Unification

To the Relations - First Section in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

 

Regarding the evolution of the preparations for restarting the North-South dialogue, from the discussions with a secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs resulted the following:

 

1. If special problems won't be raised regarding the representatives that will participate to the preparatory meeting scheduled on January 6, the meeting between the two prime ministers could take place in the third week of February.  A section Deputy Chief of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea, counselor in the Administrative Council will participate on the behalf of North Korea - South Korea proposed for the meeting to take place between Deputy Ministers.

 

The Korean diplomat put emphasis on the fact that the Prime Minister of South Korea accepting to participate to a meeting where problems regarding the future of the country will be discussed is a great victory for the unification policy promoted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. However, it is only a partial success as there were no answers to the other letters sent to the opposition party leaders and dignitaries in South Korea.

 

2. By analyzing different information regarding this problem, it resulted that the Korean side is concerned and even worried by the fact that its letters didn't produce the anticipated response from the opposition in South Korea. Many of the dignitaries that received a letter ignored this act, motivating that the vice-president Kim Il is not an equivalent dignitary and therefore he isn't negotiating from the same position.

 

Other dignitaries had a negative, even extreme reaction to the North's initiatives. Kim Yeong-sam [Kim Young-sam], the president of the New Democratic Party, the main opposing party, presented the North Korean actions as a general peaceful offensive. Also, Kim Dae Jung, one of the leaders of the New Democratic Party as well as former president of South Korea, Yun Posun [Yun Bo-seon] - convicted to 2 years in prison for breaking the martial law- made declarations against the North and its totalitarian communist regime, supporting the necessity of forming a strong government in order to withstand the North's plots.

 

We don't regard the official excuses, which say that the lack of a reply to the letters from other dignitaries is caused by the pressures of the South Korean authorities, as real.

 

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's concern for the results of its initiatives is based on other elements as well. In this regard, by meeting with more official governmental representatives of South Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will be placed into a situation where it has to officially recognize exactly what it doesn't want to: the reality of the existence of two separated states and two separated governments, which is exactly what South Korea has been planning for a long time.

 

In order to avoid this situation, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea authorities are putting emphasis on the necessity for the discussions to take place between the political personalities of the North and the South. It is even said that the dialogue mustn't be monopolized by special categories of representatives.

 

Signed,

Paul Marinescu.

 

North Korea is worried that its outreach to South Korea "didn't produce the anticipated response from the opposition in South Korea."


Document Information

Source

Archive of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Translated by Liz Gheorghe.

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Original Uploaded Date

2014-11-18

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Record ID

121281

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ROK Ministry of Unification