Report on the Work of the Delegation of the ALP to the 4th Congress of the Korean Workers' Party

REPORT

ON THE WORK OF THE DELEGATION OF THE ALP TO THE 4TH CONGRESS OF THE KOREAN WORKERS’ PARTY

The delegation of the ALP that took part in the 4th Congress of the Korean Workers’ Party set off from Tirana on September 7, 1961.

In Moscow our delegation was received by representatives of the Chinese and Korean embassies as well as the Albanian diplomatic corpus. There were no representatives from the Soviet side.

During the two days it spent in Moscow, the delegation stayed at the embassy of the People’s Republic of Albania. On September 8, the delegation left for Korea on an airplane with many other delegations from Europe and Latin America who during the days they had stayed in Moscow had been guests of the soviets. During the trip they were all cool to us and hesitated to talk to us. When we stopped at the city of Omsk, the Secretary of the Party Committee who had come out to greet the delegations, upon learning that we were Albanian and upon recognizing Comrade Thoma Deljana with whom he had attended the party school in Moscow, gave our delegation a very warm welcome and this fact drew the attention of the other delegations.

In Pyongyang, a warm welcome was extended to the delegations that arrived with our plane. The entire Political Bureau with Comrade [General Secretary of the Korean Worker’s Party (KWP)] Kim Il Sung at the front as well as the people carrying flowers in their hands had come out to greet us. After being photographed with the comrades of the Political Bureau, accompanied by the member of the Political Bureau and the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the city of Pyongyang, we were sent to a special villa outside the city which was placed at our delegation’s disposal.

On September 11, 1961 the proceedings of the 4th Congress of the Korean Workers’ Party were declared open. There were 32 foreign delegations from all the continents of the world taking part in the congress. The soviet delegation was headed by Kozlov and the Chinese one by Comrade Deng Xiaoping. The delegations of the countries of popular democracy were headed by members and candidates of the Political Bureaus.

There were 1160 delegates with deliberative votes and 73 with consultative votes taking part in the congress. The ratio of representation was 1:1000. Comrade Kim Il Sung was chosen as a delegate by all the party organizations. Over 50% of the delegates were workers, 27% peasants, 11% civil servants, etc. The majority of the delegates were old comrades, fighters, innovators, and Heroes of Socialist Work. 172 of them had taken part in the war against Japan, 396 in the patriotic war, 85% were decorated and 66 were Heroes of Socialist Work. 83% of the delegates had over 10 years of party experience and only 36% of them had entered the party after the liberation. In the field of education level 746 delegates had finished higher learning schools. 13.5% of the delegates were women.

The congress proceeded according to this agenda:

1. The Report of the CC—by Comrade Kim Il Sung
2. The Report of the Commission of Revision
3. The Approval of the 7 year plan—by Comrade Kim Il Sung
4. The Election of the Central Organs

The congress lasted 8 days, from September 11 to 18 1961.

In the Report of the CC read by Comrade Kim Il Sung, there was included a detailed analysis of the internal situation in the country, the great successes achieved by North Korea not only in the curing of the wounds left by war, but also in the further development, especially in the field of heavy industry. The work on this industry in Korea was achieved alongside a brutal war with the enemies of the party and the people who sought only the development of the light industry and the supplying with goods of wide consumption. The 4th Congress demonstrated once again the correctness of the line of the Korean Workers’ Party when it decided to follow the course of the development of the heavy industry. The congress was named “The Congress of the Winners” because in both the cities and the villages the work on the socialist transformations was completed and the foundations of socialism had been laid.

The congress showed once again the unbreakable unity of the party and the people around the CC with Comrade Kim Il Sung at its helm. The delegates showed their optimism about the achieved results and for the great perspectives that are opened to their country in the future. The enthusiasm and the optimism were very visible, especially amongst the people, in all the meetings and conversations we had with them. They were embodied in the great and massive movement, the Chollima, (The Flying Horse) which had developed into a great popular push for bigger steps ahead. With the execution of this plan North Korea becomes a socialist country with an advance industry and a developed agriculture. The fulfillment of this plan [illegible handwritten notes] creates great possibilities for [illegible handwritten notes] the peaceful unification of the country.

But we think that in both the report by Comrade Kim Il Sung and in the discussions very little was said about the international situation. There was no Marxist analysis based on the Moscow declaration of 1960 done to the international situation and there was hesitation to openly declare their opinions. In other words, the congress gave you the sense that nothing has happened lately in the international communist movement and that everything goes on smoothly. Applauses were extended to both the speeches by Kozlov and the delegates that represented the opportunist parties and to the speech by Comrade Deng Xiaoping, the one by our delegation, etc.

Nonetheless, it should be noted that in those few words in which the international situation was mentioned, imperialism was heavily denounced, especially American imperialism, revisionism was called the main danger to the international communist movement, the Yugoslav revisionism was denounced, and as to the program of the CP of the Soviet Union all that was said was that it opens marvelous perspectives for the construction of the communist society and that it boundlessly inspires the entire progressive humanity, because they can see the bright future towards which the soviet people walk.

(The other reports and materials that we received were handed over to the Foreign Affairs Directorate of the CC.)

In his speech, Kozlov spoke about the successes achieved by the Korean people. He said the Khrushchev is very interested about the socialist countries in Asia and that they be a role model to the rest of the peoples in Asia. Then he spoke mainly of the program of the CP of the Soviet Union and said that the Soviet Union will be ready to defend any socialist country. He said that they have the same opinions on the foreign affairs issues with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Finally he gave a painting of Lenin as a present to the congress. The delegates reacted to his speech in the same fashion as with all the other speeches and when he mentioned the name of Khrushchev using a louder voice, the delegates applauded as usual, sometimes they did not applaud. [Handwritten text].

In his speech, Comrade Deng Xiaoping addressed the congress as “The Congress of Winners.” He said that the Korean Workers’ Party has followed a correct course on the matter of the unification of Korea and mentioned that the heroic struggle of the Korean people against the American imperialism is a great exhibition of the proletarian internationalism, because through that war, the Korean people defended not only its country, but also the People’s Republic of China and the entire socialist camp. He said that the Korean Workers’ Party fights against revisionism as the main danger to the international communist movement. “We are happy,” he said, “to have such a party as our neighbor.” He spoke against the plans of the American imperialism for war and said that Yugoslavia is more and more turning into an American base against the peoples of Asia. After approving of the latest measures taken by the soviet government for the restarting of the nuclear weapons testing, he said that from Albania to Vietnam and from Germany to Korea we should all be ready to defend the peace.

The Japanese delegate, Miyamoto, said that the Japanese communists are waging a brutal struggle in two fronts: against the American imperialism and against the Japanese bourgeoisie. The opportunists continued to greatly damage the Japanese Communist Party, but they were destroyed and expelled from the party before the Party Congress. “Now,” he said, “we are stronger.”

Of the other delegations that addressed the congress, only Kim Stoyka (Romania), Georgi Chankov (Bulgaria), and the Czechoslovakian delegate mentioned Khrushchev by name, while the others never brought him up. Chankov said that only through the peaceful race between the two systems can communism be achieved, while the Spaniard, after mentioning the terror in Spain, said that only through peaceful means can the revolution in Spain win.

The Cuban delegation to the congress received a warmer reception. The Cuban delegate said that, “We are for peace and that is why we fight against imperialism. Our cause will win, because it is the cause of peace and democracy.”

The French delegate Leo Figaro said that the French Communist Party is fighting the reactionaries. De Gaulle is not able to make good on any of the promises he made, but he continues his war against Algeria and Tunisia. “We,” he said, “are increasing the vigilance of the French people against West Germany, which has attacked France three times in a row. In the last congress we destroyed the rightist opportunists who maintained the de Gaulle is able to solve all the problems. De Gaulle,” he said, “is an ally of the USA.”

We were not able to hear all of the addresses from the foreign delegations, because they started sending us for visits in various places around the capital from the fourth day of the congress and only on the last day when comrade Kim Il Sung spoke about the 7 year plan and when congress came to an end we were able to attend.

The address by our delegation was well received by the congress delegates and many of them had mentioned in conversations that they had liked our address because it was tough, especially against revisionism and particularly against Yugoslav revisionism. A few foreign delegations also congratulated us, such as the ones from Burma, Malaya, New Zealand, Indonesia, Cambodia, etc. It must be noted that the leader of the German delegation also came a shook our hand enthused by the support we gave to the German cause, though he later changed his attitude to a more cooled approach. Kozlov was not there during the session when we addressed the congress. Comrade Kim Il Sung and the other leader comrades of Korea came and genially shook our hands and thanked us.

Our posture vis-à-vis the soviet delegation on the outside was curt and cool, while with the other delegations we behaved according to that they merited. The leader of the delegation of New Zealand asked us to give to Comrade Enver Hoxha the warmest greetings from the Chairman of their party. The same was with the delegations of the communist and workers’ parties of Asia who behaved very friendly to us, except for the delegation from Vietnam who behaved cool toward us. Our party’s materials (the report by Comrade Enver Hoxha at the 4th Congress and the Declaration of the CC of our party on the issue of Berlin) we mainly dispersed amongst these delegations.

After the closing of the proceedings of the congress, our delegation visited the industrial town of Hamheung and the city of Sinuiju. We visited many modern factories and plants, as well as many schools of various levels. We were very warmly and enthusiastically received everywhere by the people and the local party and government cadres. In Sinuiju, where the paper factory is on a race with the Wood Plant “Nako Spiru” [Albania] a meeting was organized where the secretary of the factory party organization and myself spoke. Everywhere we went in their speeches and addresses they expressed the great love for their party and for Comrade Kim Il Sung personally and spoke about the friendship between our two peoples of the two furthest edges of the socialist camp, spoke about the heroism of our people and our party and raised toasts to the health of Comrade Enver Hoxha.

In Hamheung the second secretary of the Party Committee spoke, when in our midst, with scorn about Khrushchev and with great fondness about Comrade Enver Hoxha. The Korean Minister of Education was our companion in all these visits.

Before we left we met with Comrade Kim Il Sung. We send the report on this conversation to the ALP CC some time ago.

Our visit lasted until September 25. We were once again accompanied by all the comrades of the Political Bureau of Korea with Comrade Kim Il Sung at their front on our departure. We set off for Beijing along with the Chinese delegation headed by Comrade Deng Xiaoping on a People’s Republic of China government plane.

The Leader of the Delegation

[First Vice-Chairman of the Ministerial Council, Minister of Learning and Culture and Member of the Political Bureau of the CC of the ALP] Manush Myftiu

[Signed]