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North Korea: Between Moscow and Peking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Extract

Since the ousting of Khrushchev in October 1964, North Korea's relations with her neighbours have undergone a radical change. The warmth that the North Korean leaders demonstrated towards Communist China earlier has all but evaporated. The staunch anti-revisionism which used to characterise North Korean speeches and statements has given way to increasingly frequent warnings about the dangers of left opportunism, dogmatism and sectarianism. The economic and political ties between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Soviet Union which were seriously damaged during the Khrushchev era have now been more or less re-established.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1967

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References

1 On the differences between Khrushchev and the North Koreans see Scalapino, Robert A., “The Foreign Policy of North Korea,” The China Quarterly, No. 14 (0406 1963), pp. 3050CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paige, Glenn D., “North Korea and the Emulation of Russian and Chinese Behavior,” in Barnett, A. Doak (Ed.). Communist Strategies in Asia (New York: Praeger, 1963), pp. 228261Google Scholar; and Chong-Sik Lee, “Stalinism in the East,” in Scalapino, Robert A. (Ed.), The Communist Revolution in Asia (Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice Hall, 1965), pp. 114139Google Scholar.

2 North Korea's identity of views with China on ideological matters, its refusal to sign the Moscow nuclear test ban treaty and its opposition to an international conference in the summer of 1964 can be taken as a complete identification with the Chinese stand. In one aspect Korean polemics differed from the Chinese: Pyongyang never attacked Khrushchev by name.

3 Delegation leader Kim II and KWP vice-chairman Kim Chang-man. The delegation arrived in Moscow on November 4 and left the Soviet capital on the 12th.

4 In his departure speech Kosygin maintained that in the course of the talks “the identity of our views on the basic political problems…and the concerted hopes of our countries and parties for strengthening mutual assistance and co-operation…were confirmed” (Radio Pyongyang, February 14, 1965).

5 On September 9, 1964, Pravda reminded the North Korean regime that Soviet experts were still working on the construction of a nuclear-powered hydroelectric station with a capacity of 400,000 kilowatts. Pravda also maintained that during the previous years the Soviet Union helped North Korea to restore or build over 40 industrial enterprises and projects.

6 North Korea News Agency (KCNA), June 22, 1966; for an analysis see “Strengthening North Korean-Soviet Economic Relations,” Radio Free Europe (RFE) Research report, June 22, 1966.

7 Tass, February 13, 1967.

8 Pravda, March 6, 1967.

9 Novikov arrived in Pyongyang on May 20, 1967, at the invitation of Vice-Premier Yi Chu-yon (KCNA, May 20, 1967), and was received by Kim Il-song on May 22 (Tass, May 22, 1967). Yi Chu-yon himself spent a few days in Moscow earlier in May (Radio Moscow, May 8, 1967).

10 North Korean Minister of Defence, General Kim Chang-pong, was reported to have held “friendly talks” with Chief Air Marshal K. A. Vershinin on February 13. Col.-Gen. G. S. Sidorovieh and the Soviet military attaché were present (KCNA, February 13, 1965).

11 Radio Moscow, May 31, 1965.

12 The North Korean military delegation led by the chief of the KPA general staff, Deputy Minister of Defence, General Choe Kwang, included the commander of the KPA air force and anti-aircraft defence, Deputy Minister of Defence, Col.-Gen. Kim Tae-hyon, and two other general officers.

13 On June 22, 1966, North Korean Minister of Defence, Kim Chang-pong, was reported to have arrived in Khabarovsk for a “rest.” Kim, accompanied by “North Korean military leaders,” was to stay in Khabarovsk “for several days” (Tass in Russian, June 20, 1966). Two days earlier Kim and General Choe Kwang were received by Malinovsky, Marshal, who also entertained them for dinner (Pravda, 06 21, 1966)Google Scholar On November 11, 1966, a group of North Korean generals led by Deputy Minister of Defence, General O Chin-u, were received by Marshal Grechko (Radio Moscow, November 11, 1966). O Chin-u was later reported to be “recuperating and resting” in the Soviet Union. During his stay, he and a group of generals visited a number of Soviet military educational institutions, and the Taman motorised guard division. He left for home on December 19, 1966 (Krasnaya Zvezda, December 21, 1966). O Chin-u was back again in the Soviet Union in February 1967 as a member of the government delegation led by Kim II. On July 14, 1967, Gen. Choe Kwang, Col. Gen. Kim Tae-hyon and Navy Commander-in-chief, Vice-Admiral Yu Chang-kwon held talks with the new Soviet Minister of Defence, Grechko, Marshal A. A.. (Pravda, 07 16, 1967.)Google Scholar

14 New York Herald Tribune (Paris edition), January 29, 1966.

15 Pravda, April 23, 1965.

16 In an airport speech delivered immediately before the Kosygin delegation's departure from Pyongyang, Kim Il-song said: “The meeting and exchange of views between us on this occasion has enabled us to understand each other better and has contributed to the friendship and solidarity between the Korean and Soviet peoples…” (KCNA, February 14, 1965).

17 During the Khrushchev years party relations between the KWP and the Albanian Workers’ Party as well as between the KWP and the Rumanian Communist Party remained cordial. In the summer of 1965 a North Korean party delegation attended the Ninth Congress of the Rumanian Communist Party.

18 Radio Budapest, November 5, 1965.

19 Hungarian Telegraph Agency, November 4, 1965.

20 The delegation was led by Vice-Chairman of the KWP Central Committee, Choe Yong-kun. Other members were foreign minister and candidate member of the Politburo, Pak Song-chol, the director and deputy director of the Central Committee's international affairs department, Ho Sok-son and Kim U-chong, and the North Korean ambassador to the Soviet Union, Kim Pyong-chik.

21 The KWP sent delegates to the following party congresses during 1966 and 1967 (the names of the heads of KWP delegations are given in parentheses): 13th Congress of the Czechoslovakian CP, May 31-June 4, 1966 (Yi Chong-ok); 15th Congress of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, June 7–11, 1966 (Pak Kum-chol); Fifth Congress of the Albanian Workers’ Party, November 1–8, 1966 (Yi Yong-ho); Ninth Congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party, November 14–19, 1966 (Ho Sok-son); Ninth Congress of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, November 28-December 3, 1966 (Pak Song-chol); Seventh Congress of the East German Socialist Unity Party, April 17–22, 1967 (Yi Chu-yon).

22 Hung Ch'i (Red Flag), No. 2, 1966Google Scholar, as reported by New China News Agency (NCNA) on February 10, 1966.

23 NCNA, April 9, 1966.

24 Yong-kun's, Choe Congress speech, delivered on April 1, 1966, was carried in full in The Pyongyang Times, 04 7, 1966Google Scholar.

25 KCNA, March 22, 1966.

26 See, for instance, “Let Us Defend Independence,” in Nodong Sinmun, August 12, 1966.

27 Nodong Sinmun, September 15, 1966. An extensive outline of the article was carried by Tass on September 17, 1966.

28 Actually, the 14th Plenum following the party conference abolished the ranks of chairmanand vice-chairmen of the Central Committee. Instead, it established a presidium within the Politburo, and set up an all-member secretariat.

29 Kim was one of the Korean communists who spent some time in Yenan during the early 1940s and returned to Korea at the end of 1945 under the leadership of Kim Tu-bong.

30 Ibid., and Kim Il-song's report at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the KWP, October 10, 1965 (Nodong Sinmun, October 11, 1965).

31 Nodong Sinmun, August 12, 1966. The official North Korean translation deliberately uses the word “independency” instead of mere “independence.” English translation appeared as a supplement to The Pyongyang Times, August 18, 1966.

32 “The Present Situation and the Task Confronting Our Party,” Kim Il-song's report to the KWP Conference, October 5, 1966.

33 The elections took place at the 14th Plenum of the Fourth Central Committee of the KWP on October 12, 1966. Five full members and nine alternate members were added to the Politburo.

34 On January 26 the North Korean news agency carried an angry denial of Chinese charges that “some kind of a coup” had broken out in Pyongyang. The North Korean denial stressed the unity of the party, the government and the people's army: “The heroic people's army, under the leadership of the KWP, is defending the rock-firm socialist gains in the northern part of our country and is prepared to repulse any aggression of the enemy” (KCNA, January 26, 1967).