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North Korea's First Five-Year Plan, 1957-1961

A collection of declassified documents from Russian, Polish, Chinese, and East German archives on North Korea's Chollima Movement and First Five-Year Plan (1957-1961).

Popular Documents

April 23, 1956

Record of a Speech delivered by Kim Il Sung at the Third Congress of the Korean Workers' Party

Kim Il Sung draws on Khrushchev's speech at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in his own speech at the Third Congress of the Korean Workers' Party, and speaks to the successes of the Three-Year Plan and discusses the implementation of a similar Five-Year Plan.

November 22, 1958

Record of Conversation from the Premier's Reception of the Korean Government Delegation

Zhou Enlai and Kim Il Sung discuss the economic situation, electricity production, agricultural production, cooperativization, and the military in North Korea, as well as the withdrawal of the Chinese People's Army from the DPRK. Zhou and Kim also touched on issues relating to U.S.-Japan relations, inter-Korean relations, Chinese development, the Great Leap Forward, U.S. global strategy, Korean nationals in Japan, and Taiwan.

April 9, 1957

Journal of Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 9 April 1957

During his conversation with Puzanov, Kim Il Sung discusses the five-year plan to develop the DPRK's economy, the KWP's efforts to improve the standard of living for the North Korean people, factionalism and the eventual consolidation of KWP members under the official party line, Stalin's cult of personality, and problems in the North Korean judiciary.

May 16, 1960

The Economy of the DPRK and South Korea in the Postwar Period

Tugarinov compares the economy of the DPRK and South Korea in the postwar period, and notes DPRK's superiority in its level of industrial production and standard of living.

November 1957

Friendship and Solidarity Among Socialist Countries

Kim Il Sung's article, originally published in Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn, thanks the Soviet Union and China for assisting North Korea while deriding American foreign policy.