Record of a conversation with the Soviet Ambassador in the DPRK Comrade V.P. Moskovsky about the negotiations between the Soviet delegation, led by the USSR Council of Ministers Chairman Kosygin, and the governing body of the Korean Workers Party, which took place at the USSR Embassy in the DPRK on February 16, 1965.
March 2, 1965
Telegram, Chinese Embassy in North Korea, 'Transmittal of the Situation of the Soviet-Korean Talks' and the Discussion between Kim Il Sung and Kosygin
This document was made possible with support from Leon Levy Foundation
Received by: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Level: Urgent
[North] Korea Desk Receiving Serial (65) No. 123
Transmittal of the Situation of the Korean-Soviet Talks
[To the] Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
One [North] Korean student who heard Premier Kim [Il Sung’s] transmitting report on the situation of the [North] Korean-Soviet talks on the 27th [of February] subsequently said to our [Chinese] student studying abroad [in Korea] that:
(1) The Premier had [lost his] temper this time, [which] has not happened when treating foreign guests over the past several years. Premier Kim and [Alexei] Kosygin quarreled over the question of supporting [North] Vietnam, [North] Korea, and Cuba. Premier Kim inquired to Kosygin, what kind of support have you [the Soviets] given to Vietnam! [He said that the Soviets] give only lip service to us [North Korea] and Cuba, no real action—what support have you given[?] You see with the Chinese [Communist] Party, thousands of people came out to the streets, the leaders came out, [but] what have you done[?]
(2) Kosygin inquired to Kim Il Sung, why do you always follow the Chinese Communist Party[?] Kim Il Sung said [that] we do not follow the Communist Party of the Soviet Union nor the Chinese Communist Party. [If you] want to say we follow something, we follow Marxism-Leninism. Our Party [the Korean Workers’ Party] adheres to the principle of independence, not to [the principle of] following the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or the Chinese Communist Party.
(3) Premier Kim said [that] when we adhere to the anti-imperialist struggle in any scenario, you laugh at us, saying that our clothes are worn out, [our] standing of living is low, [but] we adhere to the anti-imperialist struggle. It does not matter if our clothes are worn out. The original Seven-Year Plan meant to improve the peoples’ lives (now the Seven-Year Plan’s goal of improving peoples’ lives cannot be fully achieved because of the anti-imperialist struggle). Regardless, we wear worn out [clothes] and life is not as good, [but] we must persist in the anti-imperialist struggle and not abandon the banner of the anti-imperialist struggle.
(4) Premier Kim said [that] if you want to hold your conference on 1 March then hold [it], [but] we will not participate in your splittist meeting. [If] you want to hold [it] then that is up to you.
[Kim] also said that right now [though] Khrushchev has stepped down, it seems that the Soviet leadership has not changed [and] Khurshchev’s way is still carried out. It seems that Soviet revisionism is not the work of one man, Khrushchev, but of the entire leadership clique. The future of the anti-revisionist task is still very important. For anti-revisionism, domestically [North] Korea needs to do two things: one is to hold high the anti-imperialist banner; the other is to carry out the revolutionizing of education for intellectuals. The wages for intellectuals are too high, [they are] affluent, and pay no attention to ideological reform; they have gone bad. So [we] need to carry out the revolutionizing of education for intellectuals.
[Chinese] Embassy in [North] Korea
2 March 1965
[…]
Report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a North Korean student's very negative description of the discussions between Kim Il Sung and Alexei Kosygin in Pyongyang in February 1965.
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