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December 31, 1952 Report from the Embassy of the People's Republic

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December 31, 1952 Report from the Embassy of the People's Republic Digital Archive digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org International History Declassified December 31, 1952 Report from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of Poland in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the Period of 20 November to 31 December 1952 Citation: “Report from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of Poland in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the Period of 20 November to 31 December 1952,” December 31, 1952, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Polish Foreign Ministry Archive. Obtained for NKIDP by Jakub Poprocki and translated for NKIDP by Maya Latynski. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114937 Summary: Jozef reports on the progress of the Korean War and improving domestic conditions in North Korea. Credits: This document was made possible with support from the Leon Levy Foundation. Original Language: Polish Contents: English Translation Report Embassy of the People’s Republic of Poland in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the period of 20 November to 31 December 1952 I. Poland-DPRK. 1. In this reporting period a further rapprochement between our two countries took place, especially in the area of culture. […] 2. The increased assistance from our country to fighting Korea, naturally, has a positive influence on our mutual relations. […] 3. The composition of the group of 133 Korean students invited by our government to study in Poland was finally completed in this reporting period. […] 4. The Embassy of the PRL [People’s Republic of Poland] in the DPRK has from the beginning of its creation been represented by the ambassador situated in the capital of the People’s Republic of China […] To recap, it can be said that the year 1952 was a year of deepening our mutual friendship, a closer mutual acquaintance and efforts to improve our assistance in the direction of greater effectiveness and planning. II. The domestic situation. 1. Broadened Plenum of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party. From 15 to 18 December 1952, a broadened Plenum of he Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party convened in Pyongyang, and over 1,000 delegates from the whole country and the army took part in it. The fundamental speech on the subject of “The organizational and ideological strengthening of the Korean Workers’ Party – the foundation of our victory” was given by the Chairman of the CC KWP Kim Il Sung; then, the Secretary of the CC KWP Pak Jeong-ae [Pak Jong Ae] gave a speech about organizational issues. A lively discussion developed after the speeches. The broadened V Plenum closes the stormy period of the growth of the KWP begun after the IV Plenum: in a short, one-year period, the party grew by 40%, and now has 1,020,000 members in 48,933 basic party organizations. Despite the stormy growth in the numbers of the KWP, the party’s social composition has improved by comparison to the pre-war period. The percentage of workers in the party is now 21%, poor guys 57.9%, middle guys 3.5%, working intelligentsia 16.6%, various 1%. Compared to the pre-war period, the number of workers in the party has grown by 1%, poor guys by 2.7%, working intelligentsia by 1.1%, students by 0.4%, but the percentage of middle guys in the party has dropped by 3.6%, of wealthy peasantry by 0.2%, of merchants, entrepreneurs and others by 1.4%. The strong growth of the KWP in the period of the difficult and long-lasting national-freedom war is the best proof of the power of the party, which stems from its Marxist- Leninist ideology and its tight connections to the masses of the people. The KWP is stronger, more experienced and cohesive today than before the war, its authority has grown and its leadership role in the struggle to liberate the nation and to promote the nation’s development is unquestionable. After the IV Plenum the party dealt with the lefty mistakes by opening its ranks to true patriots of the DPRK heroically fighting at the front and in the rear. During the war, 450,000 new members joined the party; these are comrades who are for the most part not sophisticated politically. The broadened CC KWP Plenum set as one of its main goals the ideological strengthening through intensive party training and putting organizational order into the ranks of the party. Taking advantage of the presence of party and state activists in Pyongyang, the CC KWP organized 7-day practical courses for the chairmen of district party committees and the National Committees (the equivalent of our District National Councils). The broadened Plenum launched mass political and economic actions for the period of the winter, aiming to raise the masses to a higher level of consciousness and a greater activism in all the spheres of life, work and struggle. 2. The overall stabilization of the DPRK . In the third year of the victorious war, despite the constantly growing air raids on the towns and villages of North Korea, the violent firing at the coastline by American warships and the cold winter, the life and work of the DPRK’s population is stabilizing more and more, and the authority of the Korean Workers’ Party and the people’s government is growing. The setting of the frontline at the 38 th parallel and the inability of the American armies to rupture it, despite many attempts, are an important source of strength and faith in the victory of the DPRK. The population knows that the front is holding strong and that it can live and work for the victorious end to this war behind this wall. The increasingly effective and planned assistance from the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China and the Countries of People’s Democracy to a large degree makes it easier for the DPRK government to stabilize the life of the people. The government and the Committee of assistance to the victims of the war distribute food and clothing to the most aggrieved in their persistent concern for keeping, if possible, the whole population alive. The preparations for winter (the building of dugouts and the transport of heating supplies) were basically completed. On 1.XII the early winter did not bring the great losses that had been feared, and the construction of air shelters, initiated by the KWP and the government, also contributed to saving the lives of the population. The good harvest of rice, its low prices and the government’s additional ration of 1 mal (7.5 kg.) of rice per family of those who work guaranteed every inhabitant of North Korea the ability to eat rice every day. The fight with bureaucratism and with the leftover ideology of Japanese imperialism that is being conducted under the leadership of the KWP has to a certain degree purged the state and social apparatuses, and mostly brought them closer to the masses, which are feeling with increasing force that this is their own government apparatus, their own people’s government. The most distinguished soldiers were given leave for the period of the holidays, and usually the whole village greets them with enthusiasm and makes them welcome; apart from this, the Union of Korean Women has organized an action of sending New Year’s gifts to the front, strengthening the ties between the rear and the front. The People’s Army enjoys universal love and support. 23 [sic?] broadened session of the Central Committee of the Unified Democratic Motherland Front was devoted to preparing a ceremonious commemoration on 8.II.1953 because of the 5th anniversary of the creation of the Korean Workers’ Army, a central preparatory committee was chosen and is headed by the CC KWP Secretary Pak Chang-ok [Pak Chang Ok]. This action encompasses the whole country. Thus, the regime of the people’s democracy, under heavy fire, passed the historical exam in Korea and every day strengthens the power of the people’s government in contrast to the rotting capitalism, which in the south of the same Korea is destroying the nation and increasingly sets the broad popular masses against itself. a) The strengthening of the people’s government. The people’s government, backed by the broad masses of the patriotic population, has gelled, and the activities of the state apparatus are increasingly efficient and effective. This can be seen in many areas. In education, for example, the Ministry was able to include up to 85% of school-age children in education. Aiming to keep alive and continue to bring up orphans, a Central Committee for saving the child has been organized, and social women’s organizations have been pulled in, and it places orphans in state orphanages or with the families of a given locality. The overall industrial production has risen by comparison to 1951 by 119%, cooperatives by 118% and internal trade, thanks to assistance from the Countries of People’s Democracy, with the Soviet Union in the lead, to 232%; the railways carried 113% more cargo than in 1951 and so forth: each of these departments is working better and more productively than in 1951. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was recently merged with the Ministry of Security, leaving as minister the former Minister of Public Security, has also improved its work, which is of great importance for the defensiveness of the country; it has organized, together with social organizations (KWP, Union of Women, the Union of Democratic Youth), self-defense units, which are playing a growing role in catching spies, bandits and saboteurs, in almost all the towns and villages.
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