MOL, XIX-J-1-k Korea, 11. doboz, 27/a, 1/25/34-1/1960. Translated for NKIDP by Balazs Szalontai.
July 21, 1960
Report, Embassy of Hungary in North Korea to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry
Under a resolution that the [Korean] Workers' Party CC passed more than a year ago, a few “Communist universities” were established experimentally in the 1959/60 academic year. According to the CC resolution, the main purpose of the Communist universities is the further education of the workers in general and the accomplishment of the further theoretical education of the cadres of South Korean origin in particular. Students who have graduated from Communist universities have the same rights as students who have graduated from other universities. In the last resort, it is the provincial party committees and the provincial People's Committees that propose university applicants for admission. In addition to party members, non-members worthy of it are also admitted. Classes are attended in the evenings after working hours. The four-week holiday is due to these students in the same way as to the other evening students.
In the last few weeks the party CC discussed the experiences gained in the previous academic year, and it found that the Communist universities established experimentally last year had done good work, and it became possible to increase the number of such universities. The CC decided to establish 20 such universities in the 1960/61 academic year in provincial centers and larger industrial centers.
[…]
In addition to raising technological standards, the main purpose of the universities is to gather together people of South Korean origin, and to select those cadres who will be suitable for leading the party and the democratic organs in South Korea after unification. The primary aim [of the leadership] is that from each South Korean settlement, there should be one or two students who have long been living in the North, at the universities. […] Following the graduation of the present class, it will be ensured that after the unification of the country, in all the centers, cities and larger villages of South Korea the party committees and People's Committees will be headed by cadres born there.
These cadres will be politically firm and loyal to the Korean Workers' Party. They will be more or less familiar with industry and the planned economy as well, because at the university they study such subjects too. At the same time they, having been born there, will also know local conditions, which will be of invaluable importance in the first period after unification. […]
Károly Práth
Ambassador
In the last few weeks the party CC discussed the experiences gained in the previous academic year, and it found that the Communist universities established experimentally last year had done good work, and it became possible to increase the number of such universities. The CC decided to establish 20 such universities in the 1960/61 academic year in provincial centers and larger industrial centers.
[…]
In addition to raising technological standards, the main purpose of the universities is to gather together people of South Korean origin, and to select those cadres who will be suitable for leading the party and the democratic organs in South Korea after unification. The primary aim [of the leadership] is that from each South Korean settlement, there should be one or two students who have long been living in the North, at the universities. […] Following the graduation of the present class, it will be ensured that after the unification of the country, in all the centers, cities and larger villages of South Korea the party committees and People's Committees will be headed by cadres born there.
These cadres will be politically firm and loyal to the Korean Workers' Party. They will be more or less familiar with industry and the planned economy as well, because at the university they study such subjects too. At the same time they, having been born there, will also know local conditions, which will be of invaluable importance in the first period after unification. […]
Károly Práth
Ambassador
Hungarian Ambassador Károly Práth analyzes progress related to North Korea's "communist universities" and the training of cadres specifically for Korean reunification.
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