April 10, 1950
Ciphered telegram, Soviet Representative Aleksei Ignatieff in Pyongyang to Vyshinsky
Ciphered telegram
Strictly Secret
Copying Prohibited
From Pyongyang
To Vyshinsky.
The deputy chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the DPRK has reported to me about the following:
1. A report to Kim Il Sung was received from the ambassador of the DPRK in the Chinese People's Republic Ri Ju-yeon [Ri Ju Yon] in which he reports about a meeting between Mao Zedong and Ri Ju-yeon that took place in Beijing at the end of March 1950.
In the conversation between Mao Zedong and Ri Ju-yeon, at the initiative of the latter, the question of a meeting between Kim Il Sung and Mao Zedong was discussed.
Mao Zedong responded positively to the question of a meeting with Kim Il Sung and selected the end of April or the beginning of May of this year as the approximate time for his meeting.
Mao Zedong connected the proposed meeting with the question of the unification of Korea, indicating in this regard that if there is a concrete plan for the unification of Korea, then the meeting should be organized secretly [not openly], but if there is not yet such a plan for unification of Korea, then the meeting with Kim Il Sung can be conducted officially.
Ri Ju-yeon has not given a concrete answer to the question of the time and form of the meeting, referring to the fact that Kim Il Sung is presently undergoing medical treatment. Further, Mao said in the conversation with Ri Ju-yeon that if a third world war begins, Korea will not escape participation in it, therefore the Korean People's Democratic Republic should prepare its armed forces.
In the conversation with Ri Ju-yeon, Mao Zedong expressed the wish to develop wider trade between the Chinese People's Republic and the DPRK.
2. Kim Chaek has reported that Kim Dal-seon [Kim Dal Son], the leader of the partisan detachments in the south of Korea whom the southern press and radio have repeatedly officially reported as killed in battles with punitive units of the South Korean army, arrived in Pyongyang from South Korea on April 3.
Kim Dal-seon came to North Korea to report about the position of the partisan movement in South Korea and to receive orders on this question.
Kim Chaek asked me to transmit the above indicated questions to Kim Il Sung through Comrade Shtykov.
10.IV.50. [A.] IGNATIEV
In a discussion between Mao Zedong and Ri Ju-yeon, Mao expresses a positive attitude toward China-North Korea relations, though indicates he is unaware that Kim Il Sung was then in the Soviet Union.
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