(June 27, 1970)

(Not reviewed by Chairman Mao)

Time: 7:30 PM to 8:45 PM on June 27, 1970
Place: Room 118, Great Hall of the People
Attendees:

North Korean Side—Delegation Leader Park Sung-chol, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Vice Premier of the Cabinet and Minister of Foreign Affairs; Delegation Members Kim Chung-rin, Alternate Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Secretary of the Central Committee; Han Ik-su, Alternate Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army; Yang Hyong-sop, Member of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Minister of Higher Education; Ambassador Hyon Chun-gil; Counselor Ko Sung-jun of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Ji Nam-san, Acting Section Chief of the Central Committee.

Chinese Side—Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai, Kang Sheng, Li Xiannian, Wu Faxian, Qiu Hui-zuo, and Han Nian-long.

Interpreters: Chinese side—Zhang Tingyan; North Korean side—Kim Sang-tae.

Record Keepers: Chen Zhongcheng, Tang Wensheng, and Wang Haiyong.



Delegation Leader Park Sung-chol: How is your health?

Chairman Mao: So-so. Welcome, welcome, comrades!

Chairman Mao: (Shaking hands with Ambassador Hyon Chun-gil) You’re the ambassador. Haven’t we met before?

Hyon Chun-gil: I saw you at Tiananmen Square during this year’s May Day celebrations.

Chairman Mao: I’ve forgotten again.

(After the handshake, Chairman Mao posed for a group photo with all the foreign guests, then they entered the reception hall together.)

Chairman Mao: (Turning to Premier Zhou) When did they arrive?

Premier Zhou: They came on the 24th. Today is the 27th, and they’ll stay one more day tomorrow.

Park Sung-chol: I would like to express my gratitude to Comrade Chairman for taking time out of his busy schedule to receive us today. First, I convey the greetings of Comrade Kim Il-sung, as well as those of our Party Central Committee and the government, to Comrade Mao Zedong and his close comrade-in-arms, Comrade Lin Biao. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the U.S. imperialist aggression against Korea on June 25 and the illegal occupation of Taiwan on June 27, China has organized large-scale, significant events in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenyang, inviting our delegation to participate. In light of this, Comrade Kim Il-sung extends deep appreciation to the Chinese Party and government. He has also instructed me, should I have the opportunity to meet Comrade Mao Zedong, to relay the following message:

Since Premier Zhou Enlai’s recent visit to our country, friendly cooperative relations between North Korea and China have been developing very well in all areas. Our two governments and peoples have made excellent progress in adopting a common stance against U.S. imperialism. Comrade Kim Il-sung is highly satisfied with this and expresses full confidence that these relations will continue to strengthen and flourish in the future.

In the past, our two peoples, united closely in struggle, defeated our common enemy—the U.S. and Japanese imperialists. The Korean people are very pleased to have China as a reliable ally. As Comrade Mao Zedong once said, our Party and government regard Northeast China as our rear base.

As you know, the important and arduous tasks before us are to achieve complete victory in building socialism in the northern part of the Republic, drive out the U.S. imperialist aggressors from South Korea, realize national reunification, and thereby soon bring about the overall victory of the Korean revolution. To accomplish this mission, we must consolidate and enhance our own independent revolutionary forces. At the same time, we urgently need international support, especially active assistance from China. For this reason, our Party and government attach great significance to Comrade Chairman’s remark that Northeast China is equivalent to Korea’s rear base, and we are deeply grateful for it. (Chairman Mao nods.)

Currently, socialist construction in the northern part of our country is progressing smoothly. The revolutionary fighters and the revolutionary masses in the south are also in high spirits. We are convinced that by uniting with the Chinese people and doing our own work diligently, we will surely achieve victory.

The Korean people fully support Comrade Chairman’s recent declaration, “Workers of all countries, unite to defeat the U.S. aggressors and all their lackeys!” U.S. imperialism has long occupied South Korea and Taiwan, constantly engaging in provocative acts, and recently has been further expanding its war of aggression in Indochina. Under these circumstances, we believe that it is of immense importance for the Korean, Chinese, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Lao, and other revolutionary peoples around the world to unite. Going forward, our Party, government, and people will continue to stand in solidarity with the Chinese people and with the revolutionary peoples of Asia and the entire world, advancing together in the struggle against U.S. imperialism and Japanese militarism.

Comrade Kim Il-sung wishes Comrade Mao Zedong and Comrade Lin Biao great success in their work and good health.

These are the words I have been entrusted by Comrade Kim Il-sung to convey to the Chairman.

During our current visit to your country, wherever we have gone, we have received warm hospitality from your Party, government, and people. On behalf of myself and the Chairman, I would like to express our sincere gratitude for this. Comrades Li Xiannian and Qiu Hui-zuo, who accompanied us on our trips to various localities, did their utmost to ensure that we were able to see everything. At the same time, we had frank discussions with them.

We believe that through this mutual exchange of delegations, relations between our two countries have become even closer, contributing to the further strengthening of our combat solidarity. The commemorative events held on June 25 and June 27 have demonstrated to the world the unbreakable friendship and unity historically forged between the peoples of North Korea and China. We consider this to be a heavy blow to our enemies. Moreover, we are delighted to have had the opportunity to witness, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China headed by Comrade Chairman and Comrade Lin Biao, the ongoing Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the efforts to bolster the nation’s economic strength and defense capabilities. We wish the fraternal Chinese people ever greater achievements in socialist construction. That concludes my remarks.

Chairman Mao: Very well said.

Park Sung-chol: Thank you.

Chairman Mao: Thank you for your speech. Comrade Kim Il-sung and I are friends—long-time friends. There are no insurmountable problems or difficulties. With a formidable enemy looming, the peoples of our two countries must unite, and indeed, all the peoples of the world must unite as well, including the Soviet people. If these peoples do not unite, how can any revolution succeed? This imperialism has its allies—for example, U.S. imperialism counts scoundrels like Japan, Park Chung-hee, and Chiang Kai-shek among its friends.

(Turning to the interpreter) Do you understand what I’m saying?

Premier Zhou: (Turning to Park Sung-chol) Perhaps you understand even better.

Park Sung-chol: I don’t quite follow.

Chairman Mao: Have we ever held commemorations of this scale before? This time, the initiative came from your side. Many issues remain unresolved because you do not propose solutions; we simply do not know how to proceed. Some of our diplomats are just like that: if you don’t suggest something, they won’t act, and even when good ideas are put forward, they often fail to notice them—they lack the necessary sensitivity. Take Comrade Choe Yong-geon, for example. He visited China three times. The first was in 1967, right in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, a period of great turmoil, with constant calls to overthrow this person or that one. Today it’s Zhou Enlai, tomorrow Li Xiannian, and the day after tomorrow—who will it be? Probably Qiu Hui-zuo! (Laughter) It was during that time that he came. Such matters should be resolved internally within our respective countries and not publicized in the newspapers.

Park Sung-chol: Are you referring to that specific situation?

Premier Zhou: Yes, it pertains to the Cultural Revolution. There were factions calling for the removal of Zhou Enlai today, Li Xiannian tomorrow, and Qiu Hui-zuo the day after. The tenses used in the translation just now were incorrect.

Chairman Mao: I’ve heard that the Red Guards published a small newspaper at the time specifically aimed against you. Premier Zhou says he saw it, but I did not. We still do not fully understand many aspects of the Cultural Revolution. Can you, perhaps, offer some insight?

Park Sung-chol: We, too, do not fully understand.

Chairman Mao: Now we have a clearer picture. It turns out there was a secret counter-revolutionary clique at work, known as the “May 16th Group.” This was also a consequence of the Cultural Revolution, exposing these bad elements. Furthermore, almost every province was embroiled in internal conflicts. In some provinces, the fighting was concentrated in just a few areas—for instance, in Hebei Province, primarily in Baoding, which comprises over twenty counties; in Liaoning Province, the main battlegrounds were Shenyang, Anshan, and Dalian, with Shenyang being the central hub, where three factions were locked in fierce combat. Did you get to see any of this?

Park Sung-chol: Yes, we did.

Chairman Mao: And they didn’t explain these processes to you?

Park Sung-chol: We only received brief explanations.

Chairman Mao: Back then, in Northeast China, one faction led by Song Renqiong was vying with another faction backed by the Shenyang Military Region for control of factories and universities. There were groups called “Liaolian,” “August 31st,” and “Liaoning Revolutionary Headquarters.”

Premier Zhou: “August 31st” refers to a revolutionary mass organization at Liaoning University established on August 31st.

Chairman Mao: These three factions negotiated in Beijing for eight months and eventually reached an agreement. Similar negotiations took place in every province.

China has a large population, as you know. After the Kuomintang retreated, many of its members went into hiding. For every one Kuomintang member who left, nine remained behind. We had no choice but to employ them. Take schools, for example: what alternatives did we have? We lacked university professors, middle school teachers, and elementary school teachers, so we had to rely on those who had stayed on. Similarly, capitalists, factory managers, and foremen continued to work in the factories.

Let me give you an example. There is a printing plant in Beijing called Xinhua Printing Factory. It dates back to the Qing dynasty, though on a smaller scale than today. Later, it printed banknotes for Yuan Shikai’s Beiyang Warlord regime. After the Northern Expedition, the Kuomintang seized Beijing and began using the factory for its own purposes. Then the Japanese invaded, drove out the Kuomintang, and put the factory to work for them. (Laughter) Following Japan’s surrender, the Kuomintang returned and resumed operations. Finally, we expelled the Kuomintang and took over the factory ourselves. Consequently, the workforce has never been thoroughly purged. Over the decades, the factory has changed hands numerous times, yet the same people have always remained—there has been no turnover.

Park Sung-chol: No turnover.

Chairman Mao: Exactly—no turnover.

Park Sung-chol: Hence the complex ideological makeup.

Chairman Mao: Many of the workers were former Kuomintang members or Japanese spies, although officially they were listed as communists. Of course, this applies only to certain individuals, particularly the leadership. There were also many new workers. Factories had expanded, employing three to four thousand workers. Such situations were common in older enterprises that had not undergone personnel purges. Wouldn’t that cause unrest?

Let’s have some tea.

Schools and other institutions with a high concentration of intellectuals, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs—are they not prone to internal strife? I, too, share a bit of President Nixon’s tendency to distrust reports from my own Foreign Ministry and certain overseas embassies. However, unlike Nixon, I am actively reforming both the State Council and our embassies. We are currently recalling ambassadors to hold short-term meetings back home.

Premier Zhou: The counselor at our embassy in North Korea, Wang Peng, who previously served as chargé d’affaires, submitted several reports that have since been discredited. He was a talkative individual lacking substance and has now been recalled.

Chairman Mao: (Turning to Park Sung-chol) I haven’t met him, but you have—you’re good friends.

Park Sung-chol: We’ve met several times, though communication hasn’t always been smooth.

Chairman Mao: (Turning to Premier Zhou) Shouldn’t we stop relying on him now?

The second instance occurred during a return trip from Vietnam via North Korea, where we also held talks with Comrade Park Sung-chol. That was last September. The third meeting took place last October.

Premier Zhou: Comrade Park Sung-chol attended both of those occasions.

Park Sung-chol: He also visited in 1967.

Chairman Mao: That’s just the way things are—it doesn’t affect the bigger picture. The overall situation remains positive.

Focusing solely on minor details and others’ shortcomings while ignoring one’s own.

Park Sung-chol: (Turning to the interpreter) Who are you referring to?

Premier Zhou: Ourselves—the Chinese side.

Chairman Mao: This applies not only to North Korea but also to Vietnam.

Let me give you an example. Our embassy in Ceylon maintained a very narrow perspective. They consistently predicted that the United National Party would win the election, while dismissing the Liberal Party as insignificant. Their reports even included a warning: should the Liberal Party prevail, the United National Party might stage a military coup. While such assessments may have been plausible at the time, they no longer reflect reality.

Some embassies can be excused, given the challenging environment in which they operate—for instance, in Moscow, where much of the available information consists merely of criticism directed at us. Whenever we encounter such negativity, it naturally casts a shadow over our perception of the world. Ultimately, listening to these reports leads one to believe that the end of the world is imminent. The Soviet Union, for example, frequently portrayed us as doomed. That was essentially the prevailing mindset. While some of these views can be forgiven, others are fundamentally flawed. In fact, certain embassy staff were outright unreliable.

Premier Zhou: There were bad actors.

Chairman Mao: Take, for instance, our former ambassador to Hanoi, Zhu Qiwen, who was secretly a Kuomintang operative.

Premier Zhou: Even after his recall, he attempted to flee. We managed to apprehend him again.

Chairman Mao: At the end of the day, the responsibility lies with us. That is why, during our meeting last October, I suggested that the Premier pay a reciprocal visit. This visit proved to be highly effective, producing tangible results for the peoples of both countries, as well as for the peoples of other nations and even for certain governments.

How long have we been talking? (Looking at his watch) Please go ahead. Do you have any questions or concerns?

Park Sung-chol: Neither questions nor concerns—everything is satisfactory.

Chairman Mao: Everything is satisfactory? I’m not so sure.

Park Sung-chol: I mean it—there are no complaints. During Premier Zhou’s visit to North Korea, Comrade Kim Il-sung engaged in a lengthy, candid discussion with him. He addressed all issues comprehensively. Therefore, we have no outstanding concerns. As a participant in that meeting, I believe that all matters were resolved in a spirit of camaraderie.

Premier Zhou: Besides Comrade Kim Il-sung, Comrades Choe Yong-geon, Kim Il, and Park Sung-chol were also present.

Park Sung-chol: There were indeed some issues we initially failed to grasp. However, after Premier Zhou’s explanations, we came to understand them, and now we have no further questions. The only remaining issue is to strengthen cooperation and unite to defeat U.S. imperialism.

Chairman Mao: And its lackeys—figures like Sato, Park Chung-hee, and Chiang Kai-shek.

Park Sung-chol: Of course. Those are our adversaries. That is why, earlier, when Comrade Mao asked if I had any grievances, I replied that I did not.

Chairman Mao: There are still some unresolved issues. You should address them directly to them (referring to Premier Zhou and others).

Park Sung-chol: I will certainly do so.

Chairman Mao: Please raise any remaining concerns with them (referring to Premier Zhou and others).

Park Sung-chol: Once again, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Comrade Chairman for this warm reception today.

Chairman Mao: Thank you all—thank you, Comrade Kim Il-sung, Comrade Choe Yong-geon, and all members of the delegation.

Park Sung-chol: Upon my return, I will accurately report Comrade Chairman’s remarks to Comrade Kim Il-sung.

Chairman Mao: I have never doubted that Comrade Kim Il-sung and the party he leads are exemplary. However, China has long exhibited a sense of great-power chauvinism, looking down upon you, dating back to Peng Dehuai.

Premier Zhou: Although Nie Rongzhen, who accompanied Peng Dehuai, was not of the same ilk, he too harbored elements of great-power chauvinism.

Chairman Mao: Even someone like Wang Peng exhibits this attitude.

(Park Sung-chol does not understand the interpretation provided by our translator.)

Premier Zhou: The word order in Korean differs from that in Chinese. This is a common issue in our Korean-language broadcasts in China, as the Yanbian dialect tends to incorporate a large number of Chinese vocabulary items.

Chairman Mao: (Turning to the interpreter) Are you from Yanbian?

Zhang Tingyan: No.

Premier Zhou: Nevertheless, they were trained in the Yanbian dialect.

Chairman Mao: (Turning to Park Sung-chol) Please arrange for instructors to come and teach. Revise and improve your broadcasting scripts, because you face challenges not only in North Korea but also in South Korea.

Premier Zhou: The situation in South Korea is even more complex, as they use Chinese characters.

Chairman Mao: We really need to study this matter. Without addressing it, we risk creating further misunderstandings. It seems to me that World War III has already broken out today. (Laughter) (Turning to the interpreter) What is your surname?

Zhang Tingyan: My surname is Zhang, and my full name is Zhang Tingyan.

Chairman Mao: (Turning to Park Sung-chol) He is a descendant of Zhang Fei, so he lacks refinement. (Laughter) (Turning to the interpreter) Where are you from?

Zhang Tingyan: I’m from Beijing.

Chairman Mao: From Beijing, eh? Can you understand the Beijing dialect? (Picking up a box of matches) What do you call this?

Zhang Tingyan: Matches, Western matches, or qudeng'er.

Chairman Mao: (Nodding) That’s correct—as long as you can say “qudeng’er,” you’re fine.

Park Sung-chol: Upon my return, I will report Comrade Chairman’s comments about the broadcasters to Comrade Kim Il-sung.

Chairman Mao: Could you do us a favor?

Park Sung-chol: After we submit our report, I am confident that Comrade Kim Il-sung will take action.

Chairman Mao: I personally do not listen to the radio programs produced in China, nor does Premier Zhou. None of us—neither you nor Lin Biao—ever bother to tune in. Only those stuffy intellectuals keep concocting half-baked ideas. (Laughter)

Park Sung-chol: That’s true.

Chairman Mao: Then please take up the matter with them (referring to Premier Zhou and others).

(Turning to Premier Zhou) Is he leaving tomorrow?

Premier Zhou: Yes, he will visit the Hongxing Sino-Korean Friendship Commune tomorrow morning. In the afternoon, Comrade Huang Yongsheng will return, and we will go to greet him. In the evening, we will attend a banquet, followed by a performance of the opera “East Wind Brings Spring.”

Chairman Mao: So he departs the day after tomorrow—on the 28th or 29th. Do you have any further engagements tonight?

Park Sung-chol: We have another gala dinner.

Chairman Mao: We’ve kept you waiting.

Park Sung-chol: Once again, we wish Comrade Chairman and Comrade Vice Chairman Lin Biao good health and long life.

Chairman Mao: Likewise, we extend our best wishes for the long life of Comrade Kim Il-sung and Comrade Choe Yong-geon.

Park Sung-chol: We will certainly convey these sentiments upon our return.

(Chairman Mao rises and walks toward the door with the guests.)

Chairman Mao: I’ll escort you to the entrance.

Premier Zhou: The film they shot about my visit to North Korea turned out better than ours. Jiang Qing and Comrade Kang Sheng have already seen it.

Chairman Mao: (Turning to Park Sung-chol) You look quite young—how old are you?

Park Sung-chol: Thank you. I am 57 years old.

(Chairman Mao sees the guests off to the door, and Park Sung-chol bids farewell with a handshake.)

Park Sung-chol: Wishing you good health.

Chairman Mao: Safe travels.

(Kim Chung-rin and Han Ik-su shake hands with Chairman Mao and wish him good health.)

Chairman Mao: (Shaking hands with Ambassador Hyon Chun-gil) Your name is Hyon…

Interpreter: Hyon Chun-gil.

Chairman Mao: Hyon Chun-gil.

Hyon Chun-gil: Wishing you good health, Chairman Mao.