szalontai front 5/3/05 1:58 PM Page i Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era szalontai front 5/3/05 1:58 PM Page ii COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL HISTORY PROJECT SERIES James G. Hershberg series editor Brothers in Arms The Rise and Fall of the Sino–Soviet Alliance, 1945–1963 edited by Odd Arne Westad Economic Cold War America’s Embargo against China and the Sino–Soviet Alliance,1949–1963 By Shu Guang Zhang Confronting Vietnam Soviet Policy toward the Indochina Conflict,1954–1963 By Ilya V. Gaiduk WOODROWWILSON CENTER PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITYPRESS szalontai front 5/3/05 1:58 PM Page iii Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era Soviet–DPRK Relations and the Roots of North Korean Despotism, 1953–1964 Balazs Szalontai Woodrow Wilson Center Press Washington, D.C. Stanford University Press Stanford, California szalontai front 5/3/05 1:58 PM Page iv EDITORIAL OFFICES Woodrow Wilson Center Press One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20004-3027 Telephone 202-691-4029 www.wilsoncenter.org ORDER FROM Stanford University Press Chicago Distribution Center 11030 South Langley Avenue Chicago, Ill. 60628 Telephone 1-800-8621-2736; 773-568-1550 ©2005 by Balasz Szalontai All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data [TK] szalontai front 5/3/05 1:58 PM Page v WOODROWWILSON INTERNATIONALCENTER FOR SCHOLARS Lee H. Hamilton, President and Director The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. is a living national memorial to President Wilson. The Center’s mission is to commem- orate the ideals and concerns of Woodrow Wilson by providing a link between the worlds of ideas and policy, while fostering research, study, discussion and collaboration among a broad spectrum of individuals con- cerned with policy and scholarship in national and international affairs. Supported by public and private funds, the Center is a nonpartisan institution engaged in the study of national and world affairs. It establishes and maintains a neutral forum for free, open and informed dialogue. Conclusions or opinions expressed in Cen- ter publications and programs are those of the authors and speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center staff, fellows, trustees, advisory groups, or any individuals or organizations that provide finan- cial support to the Center. The Center is the publisher of The Wilson Quarterlyand home of Woodrow Wilson Center Press, of dia- logueradio and television and the monthly newsletter “Centerpoint”. For more information about the Cen- ter’s activities and publications, please visit us on the web at wilsoncenter.org. BOARD OF TRUSTEES Chairman, Joseph B. Gildenhorn; Vice Chairman, David A. Metzner. Private Citizen Members: Joseph A. Cari, Jr., Carol Cartwright, Robin Cook, Donald E. Garcia, Bruce S. Gelb, Charles L. Glazer, Tami Longa- berger. Ex officio members: James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress; Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States; Bruce Cole, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities; Michael O. Leavitt, Secre- tary of Health and Human Services; Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State; Lawrence M. Small, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education. szalontai front 5/3/05 1:58 PM Page vi The Cold War International History Project The Cold War International History Project was established by the Woodrow Wilson In- ternational Center for Scholars in 1991. The project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold war and seeks to dissem- inate new information and perspectives on Cold War history emerging from previously inaccessible sources on the “the other side”—the former Communist bloc—through pub- lications, fellowships, and scholarly meetings and conferences. The project publishes the Cold War International History Project Bulletinand a working paper series and main- tains a website, cwihp.si.edu. In collaboration with the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research in- stitute and document repository located at George Washington University, the project has created a Russian and East-bloc Archival Documents Database at Gelman Library, from Russian and other former Communist archives donated by the project, the National Security Archive, and various scholars. The database may be explored through a com- puter-searchable English-language inventory. For further information, contact the Na- tional Security Archive, Gelman Library, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 20037. At the Woodrow Wilson Center, the project is part of the Division of International Studies, headed by Robert S. Litwak. The director of the project is Christian F. Oster- mann. The project is overseen by an advisory committee that is chaired by William Taubman, Amherst College, and includes Michael Beschloss; James H. Billington, Li- brarian of Congress; Warren I. Cohen, University of Maryland at Baltimore; John Lewis Gaddis, Yale University; James G. Hershberg, George Washington University; Samuel F. Wells, Jr., associate director of the Woodrow Wilson Center; and Sharon Wolchik, George Washington University. The Cold War International History Project was created with the help of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. szalontai front 5/3/05 1:58 PM Page vii Contents Series Preface ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xvii Abbreviations xx Chapter 1. Historical Background 1 The Transformation of Traditional Korea 1 The Impact of Colonialism and the Birth of the Korean Communist Movement 4 The Emergence of the North Korean Communist Regime 13 Early Soviet–North Korean Relations and the Peculiarities of Kim Il Sung’s Dictatorship 18 The Political Consequences of the Korean War 25 Chapter 2. Arisen from Ashes 35 From War to Purge 35 “AHavoc Beyond Description” 43 Disagreements over Aid 47 “They Would Like to Curtail the Activity of the Whole Diplomatic Corps” 54 Chapter 3. Crisis and Confrontation 62 “It Is Impossible to Get Rice in the Villages” 62 Clashes at the CC Plenum 67 “The Personality Cult Is a Primary Factor in Every Mistake” 70 Kim Il Sung Takes the Offensive 77 szalontai front 5/3/05 1:58 PM Page viii Contents Chapter 4. A Challenge to the Leader 85 Coping with the Twentieth Congress 85 “Whose Party Is This?” 94 “The Koreans Ought To Be Brought Down a Peg or Two” 98 Deprivation and Discontent 103 Chapter 5. Ch’ollima and Repression 113 Pyongyang Regains the Initiative 113 Crushed by the Hooves of Ch’ollima 121 The Shadow of China 127 Chapter 6. Breezes of Reform 136 “They Already Speak About the Mistakes” 136 “We Will Unite Korea Next Year” 140 Cautious Corrections 147 The DPRK and the South Korean Revolution 155 Balancing Between Moscow and Beijing 161 The Chances of Reform and Reconciliation 166 Chapter 7. Defying the Kremlin 174 Pyongyang Welcomes Park’s Coup 174 “Peaceful Co-Existence Smells of Revisionism” 179 Arming the Whole People 188 “One Cannot Feed the People on Coal and Iron” 195 “You Have No Political Line of Your Own” 199 Chapter 8. The Matrix of North Korean Despotism 210 Imported Despotism? 211 Inherited Despotism? 218 The Roots of Repression 229 The Decline of Soviet Influence in the DPRK 241 “Corrections,” North Korean Style 248 Summary 259 Bibliography 267 Notes 281 Index 337 viii szalontai front 5/3/05 1:58 PM Page ix Series Preface [TK] ix