November 8, 1953
Prime Minister Kim:

The United States has recently stirred up trouble again at the United Nations General Assembly over the issue of bacteriological warfare, falsely accusing us of using cruel torture to coerce bacteriological warfare prisoners into fabricating false confessions. We intend to release the confessions of nineteen U.S. bacteriological warfare prisoners and, prior to their release, issue a communiqué on these nineteen confessions in the name of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army and the Political Department of the Chinese People’s Volunteers. The communiqué, confessions, audio recordings, and photographs of the prisoners will all be sent to Pyongyang by plane on November 9. We plan to broadcast the communiqué at 11:00 a.m. Beijing time on the morning of November 10, with publication in the newspapers on November 11.

Starting from November 11, the oral confessions of each prisoner will be broadcast consecutively and published in the newspapers the day after each broadcast. It is proposed that Pyongyang also follow this schedule in releasing the above-mentioned communiqué and confessions. Please telegraph your views on all the above points.

Mao Zedong
November 8, 1953

[I]
Photograph:
Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung cordially shaking hands, November 1953.

--- Notes

This is a telegram from Mao Zedong to Kim Il Sung, Prime Minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.