"Mostly Propaganda in Nature:" Kim Il Sung, the Juche Ideology, and ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

"Mostly Propaganda in Nature:" Kim Il Sung, the Juche Ideology, and the Second Korean War NKIDP Working Paper #3 GDR Embassy Letter to State Secretary Hegen March 4, 1968 GDR Embassy to DPRK Pyongyang, 4 March 1968 State Secretary and First Deputy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Comrade H e g e n 1 02 B e r l i n Marx Engels Square 2 Dear Comrade Hegen! Following your written instructions of 30 January 1968 I today attempt to write down a summary of most relevant events and likely tendencies. For reasons of efficiency I have chosen to do this by way of a letter to you. Enclosed is the most important material drafted during recent weeks [Translator’s note: enclosures are not part if this document]. I have left a copy of this letter in our embassy to provide our new ambassador, Comrade Henke with the opportunity to state his opinion after his arrival. As one copy is staying here, I arranged classification of the most important material as highly confidential or confidential matters. O n the “Pueblo” Question So far negotiations in Panmunjom are inconclusive with regard to the return of crew and ship. Yet currently it is very difficult to obtain exact information over the substance of negotiations. Apparently both participating sides have agreed to make nothing, or next to nothing, available to the public. Even the Polish and Czechoslovak comrades who have their representatives on site in Panmunjom, and have so far briefed me regularly, do now encounter problems in following the course of negotiations. In recent days, attention is apparently mainly focused on General Park Jongguk’s proposal to exchange the “Pueblo” crew against patriots imprisoned in South Korea. This proposal forwarded by members of the Neutral Commission is said to have met the interest of the United States. There are doubts, however, whether the South Korean side is willing to hand over prisoners to the U.S. for a swap with the DPRK. According to the Cuban Embassy here, the DPRK demanded among other things the extradition of the deputy editor‐in‐chief of the DPRK news agency [KCNA] who defected in spring of 1967, and the return of the Lieutenant from the Korean People’s Army who was arrested during the Seoul events in January 1968. So far there is no confirmation of this information from any other side. Yet if the DPRK is really insisting on the extradition of these two, the U.S. will be in an uncomfortable position toward South Korea. The latter will be hardly willing to extradite the two, as their return to the DPRK www.wilsoncenter.org/nkidp 84
Mitchell Lerner NKIDP Working Paper #3 December 2010 would certainly lead to their retraction of everything they divulged in South Korea to possibly save their heads. It is noteworthy that General Park Jongguk indicated that a swap of the “Pueblo” crew against Korean patriots would not necessarily require a U.S apology for the intrusion into DPRK territorial waters. This element increases the attractiveness of the proposal to the United States. Its floating seems to indicate that the DPRK will leave it to the U.S. to launch such a proposal by itself during an official meeting. Judging from the course of negotiations so far, there is only a very slight probability left the “Pueblo” affair might lead to a heightening of tensions as an actual cause for a military conflict. On the domestic situation in the DPRK The most significant element of the current domestic situation in the DPRK is the creation, respectively fueling, of an all‐out war psychosis among the population. Given their limited sources of information, average citizens must arrive at the conclusion that war is imminent in the very immediate future. Apparently there are discussions about this context in wide swaths of the population. The KWP central newspaper published an editorial piece on 27 February that responds in both direct and indirect form to those questions discussed by the people (see appendix 5 [not included]). Among other things, this article warns before an all‐too‐peaceful mood, as such would abandon the brothers and sisters in the South. At the same time, the piece provides a theoretic “reasoning” for the need for “self‐ defense in the defense of the country”. As our embassy has already reported on the organizational and technical preparations for war, as demonstrated daily to a public forced to participate in them on a broad scale, I limit myself to a condensed outline of major facts: - At certain points in the city access roads respectively accesses are being built to underground facilities of the “subway” under construction. We are not able to assess to what extent an underground system does already exist. It looks, however, as there are presently major efforts underway to expand current underground facilities and perfect them. The editorial piece from 27 February mentioned above also calls for the construction of defense facilities. - Mobilization efforts are supposedly already completed. According to internal information we received, the ranks of the KPA [Korean People’s Army] swelled by 200,000 to 250,000 men from their current strength of about 400,000 members (see here also appendix 6 [not included]). - Rehearsals of air‐raid alerts with partial or complete cutoff of electricity. - Employees of our embassy have frequently observed how books, archival material and other things have been removed from public libraries, schools, archives, military offices and other administrative facilities. www.wilsoncenter.org/nkidp 85
Page 1 and 2:
NORTH KOREA INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTA
Page 3 and 4:
THE NORTH KOREA INTERNATIONAL DOCUM
Page 5 and 6:
"Mostly Propaganda in Nature:" Kim
Page 7 and 8:
Mitchell Lerner NKIDP Working Paper
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38: Mitchell Lerner NKIDP Working Paper
Page 49 and 50: www.wilsoncenter.org/nkidp 45 Mitch
Page 53 and 54: DOCUMENT APPENDIX DOCUMENT No. 1 *
Page 57 and 58: Letter from GDR Embassy in the DPRK
Page 63 and 64: www.wilsoncenter.org/nkidp Mitchell
Page 65 and 66: Letter from GDR Embassy in the DPRK
Page 79 and 80: DOCUMENT No. 10 * * * Mitchell Lern
Page 87: Mitchell Lerner NKIDP Working Paper
Page 93 and 94: On the Development of the Economy M
Page 103: www.wilsoncenter.org/nkidp 99 Mitch
show all

"Mostly Propaganda in Nature:" Kim Il Sung, the Juche Ideology, and ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?