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ABSTRACT
The year 1956 was one of the most pivotal in the history of the North Korean party-state. It marked the end of political diversity and the decline of Soviet and Chinese influence on political, economic, and cultural developments in North Korea. Two incidents in particular, the August Plenum of the Korean Workers’ Party, and the joint Sino-Soviet party intervention in a domestic dispute that September, propelled North Korea down the path toward despotism and isolation. Scholars have long suggested that North Korean leader Kim Il Sung faced serious and potentially perilous challenges to his position at the helm of the party-state during these two incidents. Utilising newly available Soviet and Chinese records, this paper challenges the standard narratives of the incidents, and asserts that there was no great threat to Kim’s position, either from domestic opposition, or from intervening Soviet and Chinese officials. A fuller understanding of the events of 1956, and of North Korea’s construction of a narrative to justify political repression, enables us to better comprehend the nature of the Kim Il Sung regime and its troubled relations with its patron allies throughout the remainder of the Cold War era.
Acknowledgement
I am indebted to participants of the May 2016 workshop The Two Koreas and the Cold War at the Wilson Center and the 2017 annual meeting of the International Studies Association, where earlier versions of this paper were presented, as well as to William Stueck, Yafeng Xia, Gregg Brazinsky, Jooeun Kim, Samantha Pitz, Bart Bernstien, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Andong was renamed Dandong in 1965.
2 Andrei Lankov, Crisis in North Korea: The Failure of De-Stalinization, 1956 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005), 135.
3 Yun’s companions included Chairman of the CC of United Unions Sǒ Hwi, Deputy Minister of Culture Kim Kan, and Head of the Department of Construction Materials Yi P’il-gyu. See ‘Memorandum of Conversation with Premier Kim Il Sung,’ 1 September 1956. Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI), Fond 5, Opis 28, Delo 410, List, p. 319. For additional details, see Lankov, Crisis in North Korea, 133–4.
4 ‘Notes from a Conversation between the 1st Secretary of the PRL Embassy in the DPRK with Comrade Pimenov, 1st Secretary of the Embassy of the USSR, on 15.X.1957,’ 16 October 1957, Polish Foreign Ministry Archive, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive (hereafter HAPP DA), http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111722 (accessed April 15, 2016).
5 Of the 71 members of the Central Committee elected in April 1956, 11 were Soviet-Koreans while 14 were ‘Yanan’ Koreans. Dae-Sook Suh, ‘Communist Party Leadership’ in Political Leadership in Korea, eds. Dae-Sook Sun and Chae-Jin Lee (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1976), 164.
6 Five Soviet-Koreans and eight ‘Yanan’ Koreans were among the 45 candidate members of the Central Committee elected in April 1956. Ibid., 169.
7 See Robert Scalapino and Chong-sik Lee, Communism in Korea: The Movement (University of California Press, 1972); Koon Woo Nam, North Korean Communist Leadership, 1945–65: A Study of Factionalism and Political Consolidation (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1975); and Dae-Sook Suh, Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).
8 Lankov highlights the threat to Kim, arguing that the probable objective of the joint party delegation was to remove Kim from power and replace him with someone more amiable to Moscow and Beijing. Lankov, Crisis in North Korea, 138. Nobuo Shimotomai similarly argues that Kim was nearly ‘ousted’ by the Soviet-Chinese delegations in September 1956. Shimotomai, ‘Kim Il Sung’s Balancing Act between Moscow and Beijing’ in The Cold War in East Asia, 1945–91, ed. Tsuyoshi Hasegawa (Washington: Wilson Center Press, 2011), 123. Balazs Szalontai, by contrast, suggests that the joint-party delegation’s objectives were more limited, and they did not try to remove Kim from power. Rather, they sought to restore the status quo ante through the reversal of the decisions of the August Plenum that led to the expulsion of six members of the KWP CC. See Balazs Szalontai, Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era: Soviet-DPRK Relations and the Origins of North Korean Despotism, 1953–64 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 99.
9 The author is grateful to Joseph Torigian, who shared the documents with the author. I modified the Korean names and re-translated a limited number of words and expressions in the documents, which were originally translated by Gary Goldberg. At the time this article was completed, the documents had not been added to the HAPP DA. Citations for the Mikoyan files are to the original folders in the State Archive of the Russian Federation (hereafter GARF).
10 Plenary Session Decision 30–31 August 1956. On the factional activities of comrades Choi Chang-ik, Yun Gong-hum, Sǒ Hwi, Pak Ch’ang-ok, etc., comrades, North Korea Relations Sourcebook, Vol. 30, Kuksa p’yonch’an wiwonhoe. The official declaration of the KWP CC gives the official line on the purge, alleging factional activities.
11 ‘Information on the Situation in the DPRK,’ April, 1955, Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI), Fond 5, Opis 28, Delo 314, listi 34–59. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114590 (accessed April 15, 2016).
12 ‘Cooperativization,’ or hyǒptonghwa, was the expression North Korea for ‘collectivization.’
13 Note from the Political Section of the Embassy of the USSR in the DPRK from the II Quarter of 9 September 1953, 1953, Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVPRF), from the personal collection of Shen Zhihua.
14 For more regarding the famine, see Szalontai, Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era, 62–7, Charles K. Armstrong, Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950-1992 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013), 83–7, and James F. Person, Solidarity and Self-Reliance, the Antinomies of North Korea’s Foreign Policy and Juche Thought, 1953–67, PhD diss., The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 2013, available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (UMI No. 3,557,683), 60–5.
15 Note from the Political Section of the Embassy of the USSR in the DPRK from the II Quarter of 9 September 1953, 1953, AVPRF, from the personal collection of Shen Zhihua.
16 ‘Note concerning the August Group, Developed on the Basis of Party Documents, as well as on the Basis of Unofficial Sources of Information,’ 6 May 1958, Polish Foreign Ministry Archive, HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114972 (accessed April 15, 2016).
17 ‘The August KWP CC Plenum,’ 15 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 153–64.
18 AVPRF, Fond 102, Opis 10, Papka 52, Delo 8, Listi 66–7, cited in Shimotomai, ‘Kim Il Sung’s Balancing Act between Moscow and Beijing,’ 124.
19 ‘Record of Conversation with Editor of the journal New Korea, Comrade Sun Jinhwa,’ 29 March 1955, RGANI, Fond 5, Opis 28, Delo. 314, ll. 207–8.
20 ‘Instructions to the CPSU delegation at the VIII Congress of the Communist Party of China concerning the issue of the situation in the KWP,’ RGANI, Fond 3, Opis 12, Delo 109, Listi 4–12. See also ‘Cable from Cde. Mikoyan from Beijing concerning the 8th CCP Congress and Conversations with the Chinese Comrades,’ 16 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 717, HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/121976 (accessed April 15, 2016).
21 ‘Instructions to the CPSU delegation at the VIII Congress of the Communist Party of China concerning the issue of the situation in the KWP,’ RGANI, Fond 3, Opis 12, Delo 109, Listi 4–12.
22 See ‘Letter of Sǒ [Hwi], Member of the CC of the Korean Workers’ Party and three other comrades to the CC CCP,’ September 5th, 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 170–90.
23 See James Person ‘“We Need Help from Outside”: The North Korean Opposition Movement of 1956,’ Cold War International History Project Working Paper #52 (2006).
24 ‘The August KWP CC Plenum,’ 15 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 153–64.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid.
27 ‘Memorandum of Conversation with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, Nam Il,’ 24 July 1956, RGANI, Fond 5, Opis 28, Delo 410, Listy 301–3. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113371 (accessed April 15, 2016).
28 For methods used to suppress criticism, see ‘Memorandum of Conversation with Pak Ui-wan,’ 29 August 1956, RGANI, Fond 5, Opis 28, Delo 410, List 317–19. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114135 (accessed April 15, 2016).
29 Ibid.
30 Andrei Lankov, From Stalin to Kim Il Sung, 164.
31 ‘Telegram from the USSR Ambassador to the DPRK Ivanov addressed to Mikoyan and Shepilov, “August Plenum of the Korean Workers’ Party Central Committee”,’ 15 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 153–64.
32 ‘Letter of Sǒ [Hwi], Member of the CC of the Korean Workers’ Party, and Three Other Comrades to the CC CCP,’ GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 170–90.
33 In the immediate wake of the plenum, others that were arrested or removed from their posts included three individuals from the P’yŏngyang KWP City Committee. DPRK Ambassador to Moscow Yi Sang-jo was stripped of his post, Kim Sǔng-hwa, the Minister of Construction, and Minister of Communications Kim Chang-hyup were removed from their posts. See ‘Report on the August KWP CC Plenum,’ GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 153–64.
34 ‘Report on the August KWP CC Plenum,’ 15 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 153–64. The arrest of some military officials immediately after the plenum led to rumours of possible involvement of military forces supporting the opponents. These included the Deputy Minister of Defence, Kim Won-sǒng, the Deputy Chief of the Military Academy, Yil-kyu, and Chief of the Political Department of the Navel Directorate of the Korean People’s Army, Yi In-ho.
35 ‘Diary of Ambassador of the USSR to the DPRK V.I. Ivanov for the period from 29 August to 14 September 1956,’ 1 September 1956, RGANI, Fond 5, Opis 28, Delo 410, Listi 319–21. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114136.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39. Ibid.
40 ‘Memorandum of Conversation with the Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to the DPRK Qiao Xiaoguang,’ 4 September 1956, RGANI, Fond 5, Opis 28, Delo 410, Listy 322–5. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113373.
41 ‘The August KWP CC Plenum,’ 15 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 153–64.
42 Ibid.
43 Ibid. See also ‘Letter of Sǒ [Hwi], Member of the CC of the Korean Workers’ Party, and Three Other Comrades to the CC CCP,’ GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 170–90.
44 ‘Letter from Yi Sang-jo to N.S. Khrushchev,’ 3 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 168–9.
45 ‘Report by N.T. Fedorenko on a Conversation with Ri Sang-jo, Ambassador of the DPRK to the USSR,’ 5 September 1956, RGANI, Delo 5, Opis 28, Delo 412, Listy 224–8. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113564.
46 Ibid.
47 ‘Protocol No. 39, Resolution of the Presidium of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, On the Situation in the Korean Workers’ Party’ 6 September 1956, RGANI, Fond 3, Opis 14, Delo 410, List 3, published in AA. Fursenko ed., Arkhivi Kremlya (Archives of the Kremlin), The Presidium of the CPSU CC, 1954–64: Resolutions, 1954–58 (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2006), 421–22.
48 ‘Instructions to the CPSU delegation at the VIII Congress of the Communist Party of China concerning the issue of the situation in the KWP,’ RGANI, Fond 3, Opis 12, Delo 109, Listi 4–12.
49 ‘Letter of Sǒ [Hwi], Member of the CC of the Korean Workers’ Party and three other comrades to the CC CCP,’ September 5th, 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 170–90.
50 Ibid.
51 The August KWP CC Plenum, 15 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, Listy 153–64.
52 Shen Zhihua and Xia Yafeng, Mao and the Sino-Soviet Partnership, 1945–59: A New History (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2015), 153.
53 ‘Cable from Cde. Mikoyan from Beijing concerning the 8th CCP Congress and Conversations with the Chinese Comrades,’ 16 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 717.
54 Ibid.
55 Lankov, Crisis in North Korea, 137.
56 ‘Conversation with the delegation of the Korean Workers’ Party at the 8th CCP Congress, 17 September 1956,’ GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 48–57.
57 ‘Report from A.I. Mikoyan to the CPSU CC,’ 17 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, List 47.
58 In addition to Mikoyan’s report, the author has also seen the Chinese record of the 18 September meeting, which contains more detail than the Soviet record. The original of the document is kept at the Chinese Central Archives.
59 From the Chinese record of the 18 September. The original of the document is kept at the Chinese Central Archives.
60 Han Sang-joon argues that Kim asked in late 1956 that the Chinese People’s Volunteers be withdrawn from Korea, as Mao had predicted.See Han Sang-joon, ‘chungguginminjiwŏn’gun ch’ŏlgunŭi wŏnin’gwa chung-puk kwan’gye’ [The reasons for the withdrawal of the Chinese People’s volunteers and China-North Korea relations] At’aeyŏn’gu jae [Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies] 19, no. 2 (2012): 5–39.
61 ‘Record of Conversation between A.I. Mikoyan and the Chinese leadership,’ 18 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 35–8.
62 The original handwritten version of the recorded conversation listed another condition, which was then crossed out: ‘reprisals against honest Party members are halted’. ‘Record of Conversation between A.I. Mikoyan and the Chinese leadership,’ 18 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 35–8.
63 From the Chinese record of the 18 September meeting, kept at the Chinese Central Archives.
64 ‘Record of Conversation between A.I. Mikoyan and the Chinese leadership,’ 19 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 35–8.
65 Ibid.
66 ‘Information on the Situation in the DPRK,’ April, 1955, RGANI, Fond 5, Opis 28, Delo 314, listi 34–59. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114590.
67 ‘Record of Conversation between A.I. Mikoyan and the Chinese leadership,’ 18 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 35–8.
68 Ibid.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid.
71 ‘Record of Conversation between A.I. Mikoyan and the Chinese Leadership,’ 18 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 35–8.
72 Report of A.I. Mikoyan to the CPSU CC, 21 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 12–6.
73 ‘Record of of the Discussions at the Meeting of the Standing Committee of the KWP CC on 20 September,’ GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 18–34.
74 Ibid.
75 Ibid.
76. "Record of a Meeting between the Sino-Soviet Delegation and the Korean Workers' Party Presidium," September 20, 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 18–34.
77 ‘Report of A.I. Mikoyan to the CPSU CC,’ 21 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 12–6. Lankov argues that the Soviets planned to draft the resolution which included a proposal to ‘overthrow’ Kim. Crisis in North Korea, 141.
78 ‘Report of A.I. Mikoyan to the CPSU CC,’ 22 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 9–11.
79 ‘Report of A.I. Mikoyan to the CPSU CC,’ 23 September 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98c, Delo 718, Listy 3–6.
80 Ibid.
81 From the Chinese record of the conversation of Mao Zedong’s Second Meeting with the CPSU Central Committee Delegation, 23 September 1956. The original is kept at the Chinese Central Archives.
82 ‘Memorandum of conversation with the charge d’ affaires of the Chinese embassy in the DPRK, Chao Ke Xian,’ RGANI, Fond 5, Opis 28, Delo 411, Listy, pp. 344–6. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113375 Rodong Sinmun, 29 September 1956. Lankov also discusses these articles in Crisis in North Korea, 142.
83 Ibid.
84 Ibid.
85 Memorandum of Conversation with the Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK, Qiao Xiaoguang, 5 November 1956. RGANI, Fond 5, Opis 28, Delo 411, Listy, pp.367–9. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113374.
86 Ibid.
87 Yi remained in the USSR, which later rejected P’yŏngyang’s demands of his extradition. Bernd Schaefer, ‘Weathering the Sino-Soviet Conflict,’ Cold War International History Project Bulletin No. 14/15 (Winter 2003/Spring 2004), 27.
88 See ‘Record of Conversation with Kim Hyŏng-mo, Chief of the Consular Department of the DPRK Embassy in the USSR,’ 19 October 1956, GARF, Fond 5446, Opis 98, Delo 721, List 2. Kim delivered a translation of the letter Yi had written to Kim Il Sung. Yi and another critic of Kim’s policies, Kim Sǔng-hwa, enrolled in the Party School in Moscow. In 1958, however, under DPRK pressure, they were expelled from the school. Soviet officials refused to repatriate them however. Yi was to be sent to Kiev, while Kim was sent to Alma Ata. See ‘Journal of Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 16 February 1958,’ 16 February 1958, AVPRF, F. 0102, Op. 14, Delo 6, Listy 32–60.
89. Record of conversation between B.K. Pimenov and Pak Kil-yong, Oct. 26, 1957, AVPRF, F. 0102, Op. 13, Delo 6, Papka 72.
90 ‘Notes from a Conversation between the 1st Secretary of the PRL Embassy in the DPRK with Comrade Pimenov, 1st Secretary of the Embassy of the USSR, on 15.X.1957,’ 16 October 1957, Polish Foreign Ministry Archive. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111722.
91 The author is grateful to Andre Schmid who in a conversation brought up his own findings on the impact of purges in the fields of construction.
92 ’Journal of Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 29 September 1957,’ 29 September 1957, AVPRF F. 0102, Op. 13, P. 72, Delo 5, Listy 275–300. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/115661.
93 ‘A Report from Comrade Sluczanski based on a Telegram from Comrade Siedlecki regarding the Agenda of the March Conference,’ 19 March 1958, Polish Foreign Ministry Archive. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/110340.
94 Record of Conversation between Mao Zedong and Soviet Ambassador to the PRC, Pavel Yudin, November, 1956. Chinese Central Archive.
95 Ibid.
96 ‘Journal of Soviet Ambassador in the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 16 June 1960,’ 16 June 1960, AVPRF fond 0102, opis 16, delo 7, p. 1–15. HAPP DA, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/119419.
97 See Shimotomai, ‘Kim Il Sung’s Balancing Act between Moscow and Beijing,’ 123.
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Notes on contributors
James F. Person
James F. Person is a professor of Korean Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Person was director of the Hyundai-KF Center for Korean History and Public Policy at the Wilson Center. He holds a PhD in modern Korean history.