August 24, 1971
Telegram, Embassy of Hungary in the Soviet Union to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry
This document was made possible with support from Leon Levy Foundation
[...]
The Soviet comrades are aware of the efforts of the South Korean government. According to the competent departmental head of the MID [the Soviet Foreign Ministry], we were the first to inform them about the concrete initiatives of the South Koreans. They warn us not to take any step that would harm Hungarian-DPRK relations and our common line toward the Korean comrades.
As his private opinion, [Head of the 1st Far Eastern Department of the Soviet Foreign Ministry] Comrade [Mikhail Stepanovich] Kapitsa told [me] that we should not rebuff the South Koreans in a rude way. Some kind of contact may be useful in the future. To illustrate how carefully this issue must be handled, he mentioned that approx. 2 months earlier, the Korean comrades had given an information note to the MID, in which they disapprovingly described when and under which circumstances the Soviet envoys, at various diplomatic posts abroad, greeted, shook hands with, or sat at the same table as South Korean diplomats.
– Monori – 423 –
A telegram from the Embassy of Hungary in the Soviet Union discussing how to handle relations with both the North and South Korean governments without offending the North Koreans.
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