‘Red on White’: Kim Il Sung, Park Chung Hee, and the Failure of Korea’s Reunification, 1971–1973

Abstract

The articles argues that in 1971–1973 North Korea’s leader Kim Il Sung used the Sino-American rapprochement and the Soviet-American détente to pursue Korean reunification on his terms; his aim was to ‘democratize’ and then ‘revolutionize’ South Korea and so achieve through dialogue what he failed to achieve through militancy. Kim’s game was based on a misreading of the political dynamics in South Korea and on misplaced confidence in North Korea’s attractiveness. He also misjudged his ability to obtain China’s and the USSR’s backing for his schemes.

Notes

¹ For previous treatments of this subject, see Bernd Schaefer, “Overconfidence Shattered: North Korean Unification Policy, 1971 -1975,” NKIDP Working Paper No. 2 (December 2010), which inspired this article; also Xia Yafeng and Shen Zhihua, “‘China’s Last Ally: Beijing’s Policy towards North Korea during the U.S. – China Rapprochement, 1970–1975,” Diplomatic History, 38:5 (2014), 1083–1113; and see Charles Armstrong and John Barry Kotch, “Sino-American negotiations on Korea and Kissinger's UN diplomacy,” Cold War History, 15:1 (December 2014), 113–134.

² There is a general historical consensus on this point. See e.g. Don Oberdorfer, The Two Koreas: a Contemporary History (Basic Books, 2001), 23–26; Kim Hyung-A, Korea’s Development Under Park Chung Hee: Rapid Industrialization, 1961–79 (London: Routledge-Curzon, 2004), Byung-Kook Kim & Ezra F. Vogel, eds., The Park Chung Hee Era: the Transformation of South Korea (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2011), 255.

³ “US notifies Seoul of its plans for removal of some troops,” New York Times, 10 July 1970, 10.

⁴ For a detailed discussion, see Charles Armstrong and John Barry Kotch, “Sino-American negotiations on Korea and Kissinger's UN diplomacy.” See also Xia Yafeng and Shen Zhihua, “‘China’s Last Ally: Beijing’s Policy towards North Korea during the US – China Rapprochement, 1970–1975,”’ 1091.

⁵ Sergey Radchenko, “The Soviet Union and the North Korean seizure of the USS Pueblo, Evidence from Russian Archives,” Cold War International History Project Working Paper, 47 (March 2005).

⁶ Leonid Brezhnev’s speech at the April 1968 CC CPSU Plenum, 9 April 1968, Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Noveishei Istorii [Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI)], fond 2, opis 3, delo 95, list 55.

⁷ Andrei Grechko’s speech at the April 1968 CC CPSU Plenum, 10 April 1968, RGANI, fond 2, opis 3, delo 94, list 12.

⁸ Record of conversation between Nicolae Ceaușescu and Kim Il Sung, 10 June 1971. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/112790 (accessed December 25, 2016). Obtained and translated by Eliza Gheorghe.

⁹ Bernd Schaefer, “North Korean ‘Adventurism’ and China’s Long Shadow, 1966–1972,” Cold War International History Project Working Paper, 44 (October 2004).

¹⁰ Conversation between Mao Zedong and Choe Yong-gon, 1 October 1969, Mao Zedong yu Waibing Tanhua Jilu Huibian [internal CCP publication].

¹¹ Conversation between Mao Zedong and a North Korean military delegation, 29 July 1970, Mao Zedong yu Waibing Tanhua Jilu Huibian.

¹² Conversations between Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung, 8, 10 October 1970, Mao Zedong yu Waibing Tanhua Jilu Huibian; also, Shanghai Municipal Archives, B-120–2–16. The two partial transcripts of these conversations do not overlap.

¹³ Conversation between Kim Il Sung and Nicolae Ceaușescu, 10 June 1971.

¹⁴ Memcon Zhou Enlai - Kissinger, 9 July 1971, 4:35–11:20 pm, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) 1969–1972, Vol. XVII, China 1969–1972, ed. US Department of State (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2006), 390.

¹⁵ Chen Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 273–275.

¹⁶ Choi Myeong-hae, The China-DPRK Alliance (Seoul: Oreum, 2009), 285. See also Seuk-Ryule Hong, “US-China Relations and Inter-Korean Relations in the early 1970s,” paper presented at East China Normal University, Shanghai, PRC, 4 June 2009.

¹⁷ Memcon Zhou Enlai – Kissinger, Beijing, 22 October 1971, 4:15–8:28 p.m. FRUS, Volume E-13, Documents on China 1969–1972, Document 44. Accessed online at http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve13/d44 (accessed December 31, 2016). For a detailed discussion see Xia and Shen, “China’s Last Ally,” 1095.

¹⁸ GDR Embassy Pyongyang, Memorandum on a Conversation with the 1st Secretary of the Embassy of the Soviet Union, Comrade Kurbatov, 7 January 1972, Politisches Archiv des Auswaertigen Amtes, Ministerium fuer Auswaertige Angelegenheiten der DDR (MfAA. PolA AA), C 944/76.

¹⁹ GDR Embassy Pyongyang, Memorandum on a Conversation with the 2nd Secretary of the Embassy of the Soviet Union, Comrade Gorovoy, on 18 February 1972, MfAA. PolA AA, C 6853.

²⁰ GDR Embassy Pyongyang, Monthly Report on the Policy of the PRC (February/March 1972), 10 March 1972, p. 11, MfAA, PolA AA, C 507/72.

²¹ Harrison E. Salisbury, ‘North Korean Leader Bids U.S. Leave the South as Step to Peace,^’ New York Times, 31 May 1972, 14.

²² Xia and Shen, ‘China’s Last Ally,’ 1096.

²³ Soviet Embassy Pyongyang, report, 8 December 1972. RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 422, listy 230–239.

²⁴ Report on a conversation with a Soviet citizen N.I. Em, 5 May 1972. RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 424, listy 26–27.

²⁵ Conversation between Kim Il Sung and N.G. Sudarikov, 13 April 1972. RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, listy 1–5.

²⁶ Date of the meeting is taken from Leonid Brezhnev’s diary. No records have yet surfaced.

²⁷ Conversation between N.G. Sudarikov and Kim Il Sung, 9 April 1972, list 8, RGANI, fond 5, fond 64, delo 423, listy 6–14.

²⁸ Conversation between Kim Il Sung and a Soviet military delegation, 24 April 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, listy 15–18.

²⁹ Conversation between Kim Il Sung and Ignatii Novikov, 23 June 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, listy 20–32.

³⁰ Memcon Nixon – Brezhnev, Moscow, 29 May 1972, 10:20 am-12:20 pm, FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XIV, The Soviet Union, October 1971– May 1972 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 2006), 1221.

³¹ Schaefer, North Korean Adventurism and China’s Long Shadow, 34.

³² Conversation between Park Chung Hee and Bak Seongcheol, 31 May 1972, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114596 (accessed December 31, 2016); and Conversation between Lee Hurak and Kim Il Sung, 4 May 1972, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/110780 (accessed December 31, 2016).

³³ Conversation between Lee Hurak and Kim Il Sung, 4 May 1972.

³⁴ Ibid.

³⁵ FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume XIX, Korea, 1969–1972, 362–365. See also Don Oberdorfer, The Two Koreas, 24.

³⁶ Conversation between N.G. Sudarikov and Kim Il Sung, 9 April 1972, list 8, RGANI, fond 5, fond 64, delo 423, listy 6–14.

³⁷ Conversation between N.G. Sudarikov and Kim Il Sung, 19 June 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, listy 33–37.

³⁸ Conversation between Ignatii Novikov and Kim Il Sung, 23 June 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, listy 20–32.

³⁹ GDR Embassy Pyongyang, ‘Note on Information by DPRK Deputy Foreign Minister, Comrade Kim Ryeongtaek, for Ambassadors and Acting Ambassadors of Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Mongolia, Romania, Hungary, and GDR on 3 July 1972 in the DPRK Foreign Ministry’, MfAA, PolA AA, C 951/76.

⁴⁰ Mikhail Kapitsa, Na Raznykh Parallelyakh. Zapiski Diplomata (Moscow: Kniga i Biznes, 1996), 240.

⁴¹ Samuel Kim, “Korea Acts to Temper Growth,” New York Times, 19 January 1970, 59.

⁴² ”The Two Koreas”, National Intelligence Estimate, 11 May 1972. CIA Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reading room.

⁴³ Bradley K. Martin, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2004).

⁴⁴ See comparison in Doowon Lee, “Inter-Korean economic relation: rivaled past, unbalanced present, and integrated future,” Yonsei Economic Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1 (March 1995), 136. See also, Christian F. Ostermann and James F. Person (eds.), ‘Crisis and Confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, 1968–1969: A Critical Oral History’ (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2010), 86–87.

⁴⁵ Philip Shabecoff, ‘South Korea’s Economy Booming with Cheap Labor,’ New York Times, 12 May 1970, 57.

⁴⁶ Conversation between N.G. Sudarikov and Kim Il Sung, 9 April 1972, RGANI, fond 5, fond 64, delo 423, listy 6–14.

⁴⁷ Statement by Dr. Lee Dongbok, former Chief of Staff, to Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) Director Lee Hurak made during the critical oral history conference "The Rise and Fall of Détente on the Korean Peninsula, 1970–1974,” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2 July 2010.

⁴⁸ Richard Halloran, ‘North Koreans in Seoul as Red Cross Talks Open,’ New York Times, 13 September 1972, 2.

⁴⁹ Conversation between N.G. Sudarikov and Kim Il Sung, 9 October 1972, RGANI fond 5, opis.64, delo 423, listy 38–53. Also GDR Embassy Pyongyang, ‘Note on Information Provided by the Head of 1st Department of DPRK Foreign Ministry, Comrade Kim Jaesuk,’ 3 October 1972, MfAA, PolA AA, C 951/76.

⁵⁰ Conversation between Ignatii Novikov and Kim Il Sung, 23 June 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, list 30.

⁵¹ Ibid.

⁵² Ibid.

⁵³ Conversation between Kim Il Sung and a Soviet military delegation, 24 April 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, list 16.

⁵⁴ Conversation between N.G. Sudarikov and Kim Il Sung, 9 October 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis.64, delo 423, listy 38–53.

⁵⁵ Conversation between Nicolae Ceaușescu and Kim Il Sung, 10 June 1971.

⁵⁶ Ibid.

⁵⁷ Conversation between Gustáv Husák and Chong Chuntaek, 2 October 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, listy 108–123.

⁵⁸ Conversation between N.G. Sudarikov and Kim Il Sung, 9 October 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis.64, delo 423, listy 38–53.

⁵⁹ Ibid.

⁶⁰ Ibid.

⁶¹ Conversation between Gustáv Husák and Chong Chuntaek, 2 October 1972.

⁶² Conversation between N.M. Shubnikov and Kim Dongju, 4 August 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, listy 96–103.

⁶³ Conversation between N.G. Sudarikov and Kim YoungNam, 19 October 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, listy 128–136.

⁶⁴ Ibid.

⁶⁵ "South Korean Chief Orders Martial Law,” New York Times, 18 October 1972, 1.

⁶⁶ Conversation between N.G. Sudarikov and Kim YoungNam, October 19, 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, listy 128–136.

⁶⁷ Conversation between N.G. Sudarikov and Kim Il Sung, November 7, 1972, RGANI, fond 5, opis 64, delo 423, listy 55–64.

⁶⁸ GDR Embassy Pyongyang, ‘Note on Information by DPRK Deputy Foreign Minister, Comrade Ri Manseok, for Ambassadors of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and GDR on 8 November 1972 in the DPRK Foreign Ministry’, MfAA, PolA AA, C 951/76.

⁶⁹ Conversation between Lee Hurak and Kim Il Sung, November 3, 1972, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113235 (accessed December 31, 2016).

⁷⁰ Bernd Schaefer, 'Overconfidence Shattered,' 18.

⁷¹ Gregg Brazinsky, Nation Building in South Korea: Koreans, Americans, and the Making of a Democracy (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 160.

⁷² Statement by Ambassador Kang Indeok, former ROK Director of the North Korea Bureau of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) under President Park Chung Hee, 9 September 2008, Conference Summary, ‘Crisis and Confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, 1968–1969: A Critical Oral History,”’ North Korean International Documentation Project Washington DC/University of North Korean Studies Seoul, 138.

⁷³ Statement by Dr Lee Dongbok, former Chief of Staff to KCIA Director Lee Hurak, 2 July 2010. Conference “The Rise and Fall of Détente on the Korean Peninsula, 1970–1974: A Critical Oral History.”

⁷⁴ GDR Embassy Pyongyang, ‘Note on Dinner by Ambassador Everhartz for Comrade Kim Dongju, Member of Korean Workers Party Politburo and Central Committee Secretary on 20 April 1973,’ PolA AA, MfAA, C 6852.

⁷⁵ FRUS, 1969–1976, Edward C. Keefer, Daniel J. Lawler & Erin R. Mahan (eds.), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-76, Korea, Part 1 (1969–1972) (Washington D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 2010). Volume 19, Korea, 1969–1972, 348.

⁷⁶ Minutes, NSC meeting, August 14, 1969, FRUS, 1969–1976, Volume 19, Korea, 1969–1972, pp. 362–365, 90.

⁷⁷ Charles Armstrong and John Barry Kotch, “‘Sino-American negotiations on Korea and Kissinger's UN diplomacy,”’ 133.