Telegram from Pyongyang to Bucharest, SECRET, Urgent, No. 067.190

TELEGRAM

Sender: Pyongyang

CLASSIFICATION: SECRET

Urgent

Date: 06.08.1976/00:00

No.: 067.190

To: Comrade C. Oancea

On August 5th, the heads of diplomatic missions from socialist countries, accredited to Pyongyang, including Ambassador Dumitru Popa, were summoned to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs where Jeon Myeong-su [Jon Myong Su], Deputy Foreign Minister, where they were presented with and given a “declaration of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea government.”

The text of the abovementioned declaration was presented to and given to the heads of diplomatic missions from non-socialist countries as well, in the subsequent meeting.

In the text of the declaration, it is underlined that the state of tension, existing for a long time in Korea, has presently become more acute than ever. The Korean people is experiencing a critical situation. War can break out at any point in time.

The United States of America and the rulers of South Korea are currently done with war preparations and moved on to adventurist schemes, trying to trigger the war. American and [South] Korean military units are deployed close to the demilitarized zone and are ready to fight. All military units have been ordered to be in a permanent state of war readiness.

The state of emergency has been declared on the entire territory of South Korea. In the United States and Japan, in military bases in the Pacific and Okinawa, strategic bombers, carrying nuclear weapons, transport aircraft, etc., are ready for a war on the Korean front, at any point in time. The current situation resembles the one in 1950, when the United States waged a war on Korea. Amongst other things being mentioned, it is shown that after the defeat suffered in Indochina by the United States, the main target for the US now is Korea.

After talking about the concentration of forces in South Korea, war preparations and military maneuvers which are taking place, the declaration mentions that all these things demonstrate that the United States, after intensively preparing for a war, is now moving to the direct provocation of the war.

If the United States does not cease its war threats, it will be impossible to prevent a war on the Korean Peninsula, which may easily turn into a world war.

“The Democratic People's Republic of Korea government and the Korean people vehemently condemn the provocative schemes, the hostile, criminal, mindless actions of the United States and the South Korean rulers, which are a serious threat to peace in the entire world, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is asking peace-loving countries’ governments and peoples to follow extremely closely on the dangerous schemes of the United States [meant] to trigger a war in Korea and to decisively condemn them.” It is also mentioned that on the one hand, the United States aggravates the situation to the verge of war, but on the other hand, it blabbers about ‘negotiations’ between interested parties.

The declaration also underlines that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea government asks the United States to immediately cease all of its new warmongering schemes and all acts of aggression against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, to immediately withdraw its nuclear weapons and all the other weapons it introduced in South Korea, to end its attempts to perpetuate two Koreas and to apply the resolution (put forward by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) at the 30th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

In conclusion, the document expresses the conviction of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea government and of the Korean people that the governments and peoples of all peace-loving countries will channel their attention towards the critical situation that was created in Korea, and that they will actively support the just position of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

After reading the declaration, Jeon Myeong-su [Jon Myong Su] said that this document is a product of the current situation when American imperialists finished their war preparations and are on the point of directly provoking the war against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

At the same time, he expressed his conviction that the governments of countries [present at the meeting] will take appropriate measures to support the declaration of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea government, to support the struggle of the Korean people for reunification of the country.

The Korean deputy minister expressed his desire that the mass information apparatuses in those countries [present at the meeting] would extensively broadcast about this declaration. He wanted them to publish, respectively to broadcast, articles through which they would condemn the actions meant to provoke a new war against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, undertaken by the United States of America and the South Korean leaders.

In conclusion, Jeon Myeong-su [Jon Myong Su] informed [us] that a memorandum of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea government will be released to the public, on the current situation in the Korean Peninsula.

On the same day, the aforementioned declaration and the memorandum of the North Korean government were presented at a press conference held at the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, attended by press attaches and press correspondents from foreign press agencies in Pyongyang.

The memorandum comprises the main ideas presented in the declaration of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea government dated August 5th: the very serious situation, the intense war preparations, the danger of another war breaking out, etc. At the same time, the memorandum includes several analyses and opinions offered by American officials, briefs and news published and broadcasted in the interval January 1975 – July 1976, by the press in the United States, Japan, South Korea, by press agencies and radio broadcasting stations, on the position of the United States towards Korea and towards war preparations against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

About the two documents, the Embassy does not possess information that any new significant elements have recently emerged, which could certify the assessment that the situation in the region has rapidly and significantly deteriorated.

We believe the aforementioned declaration and memorandum are circumscribed in the well-known propaganda campaign undertaken by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on the Korean matter, they are a response, a reaction to Kissinger’s most recent proposals to summon a four-party conference and to prepare an appropriate atmosphere to discuss the situation in the Korean Peninsula at the high-level meeting in Colombo.

Signed: Dumitru Popa