Telegram from Pyongyang to Bucharest, SECRET, Urgent, No. 067.220

TELEGRAM

Sender: Pyongyang

CLASSIFICATION: SECRET

Urgent

Date: 27.08.1976

No.: 067.220

To: Ministry of Foreign Affairs - First Direction – Relations

On August 25, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea held a press conference attended by Korean journalists, as well as foreign press attaches and correspondents accredited in Pyongyang.

Kim Yong-jip [Kim Yong Jip], the ad interim head of the Press Division in the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, offered a description of the August 18th incident around Panmunjeom, which resulted in deaths and injuries on both sides. Currently, the Korean official said, according to the rules established at the 25th session of the Armistice Commission on October 19th 1953, guards working in the Panmunjeom area cannot be provided with protection and [they] cannot be kept under control.

At the 380th session of the Armistice Commission on August 25 [1976], held on the aforementioned topic, the representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea proposed to abolish the outposts of one side on the territory of the other side, in the neutral area of Panmunjeom.

This measure, according to Kim Yong-jip would lead to greater security in the area.

With respect to the current situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Korean official assessed it as being “critical,” there being the possibility that at any given moment war breaks out.

Kim Yong-jip expressed his conviction that the mass media of friendly countries would continue to expose the provocative actions of American imperialists, thus contributing to the resolution of the Korean matter.

Signed: Dumitru Popa