TELEGRAM 066.618 from the Romanian Embassy in Pyongyang to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

TELEGRAM 066.618

To: the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (comrade Director Ion Ciubotaru)

From: the Romanian Embassy in Pyongyang

Subject: USSR-DPRK relations

Date: April 13^th, 1978

On the occasion of a recent meeting, A. Belyi, First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Pyongyang, told V. Nanu that Soviet-Korean relations, following the visit to Moscow of the former DPRK Prime Minister, Pak Seong-cheol (in January 1977) and the visit to Pyongyang of D. Kunaev, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (January 1978) remain in a good state, experiencing a relative progress compared with previous years. Therefore in 1977, almost 30 Soviet delegations at various levels visited the DPRK, and approximately 40 Korean delegations visited the USSR. Since last year, 6 Soviet delegations (filmmakers, labor union leaders, economic delegations, academics, youth delegations, civil aviation delegations) visited the DPRK and 4 Korean delegations (O Jin-u, the North Korean minister of the People’s Armed Forces, the association of engineers and technicians, an economic delegation and a sports delegation) visited the USSR.

Currently, Korean-Soviet negotiations on the signing of the commercial protocol for 1978 have been going on in Moscow for several months. The [Soviet diplomat] said that the negotiations are proceeding with difficulty, because, among other things, the Soviets insist that the balance of trade is balanced.

A. Belyi said that starting on April 9^th, 1978, the DPRK Ministry of External Economic Affairs delegation, led by Liu Kan-won [sic], the Head of the Policy Planning Department, will come to Moscow to discuss with the Soviet authorities the completion rate of the [A.L.D] (for 1976-1980), the prospects until 1980, including the use of the loan given by the USSR in February 1976.

Moreover, at the end of May or June, a delegation of the DPRK State Planning Committee is due to visit Moscow to discuss the matter regarding commercial exchanges and economic and technical-scientific cooperation between the two countries between 1981 and 1984, respectively the last 4 years of DPRK’s 7-year development plan.

[The Soviet diplomat] said that currently, one could talk about a general improvement in Soviet-Korean relations.

When making this assessment, A. Belyi added, ‘we take into account the future visit to Moscow of President Kim Il Sung.’ The Soviet diplomat said that the Korean and Soviet ministries of foreign affairs have been recently given the task to agree on a period when President Kim Il Sung’s visit will take place. Until now, there is no clear date; there are rumors among the members of the diplomatic corps that the aforementioned visit could take place between August and September 1978.

Signed

Dumitru Popa