Skip to content

December 18, 1954

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

[ …] the F[oreign] M[inistry] here quite mechanically turns a deaf ear to [the Hungarian proposal to] maintain a direct relationship with the [North Korean] party […] the Korean comrades–I mean the comrades in the party—are a bit afraid of maintaining relations with the members of the foreign diplomatic corps. They are afraid and reserved. This is also noticeable on the occasion of receptions. […] the leaders of the Korean Workers' Party show a certain reluctance to adopt the experiences of the parties of the fraternal countries. I think these problems would arise in the course of such a conversation. In my view, they would like to avoid responding to the problems, and for this reason they prefer not to maintain relations, although in my judgment, the time has already come to adopt a different point of view on a few questions, particularly on the issue of the methods of the party leadership. What I have in mind is primarily the issue of personality cult and […] the methods of agitation and education. In my opinion, by now, one year after the armistice, the situation has become ripe for making changes at least on these issues, similarly to the other fraternal countries. In any case, the coming events will prove the necessity of the aforementioned.


Pál Szarvas
Ambassador

Report from Pál Szarvas, Hungarian Ambassador to the DPRK, complaining about the unwillingness of the DPRK foreign ministry to establish typical relations with fraternal countries. He also talks about the personality cult and the need for reform.

Author(s):


Document Information

Source

MOL, XIX-J-1-j Korea, 2. doboz, 2/b, 001118/ 1/1955. Translated 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

2011-11-20

Type

Report

Language

Record ID

113394