TRENDS IN COMMUNIST MEDIA - MOSCOW ON START; ROMANIAN BOYCOTT OF BLOC MEETING;

Created: 12/14/1963

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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Contents

VSSR-VS.

Moscow Avoids Commitments on Future of STARTI

Bloc Relations

Romanians Boycott Meeting of Bloc Ideology3

DPRK Displays Heightened Sensitivity Over Rangoon6

USSR

Stenographic Record Sheds New Light on JuneS

CONia^ntu^^^

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Korea

DPRK Displays Heightened Sensitivity Over Rangoon Incident

North Korea appears to be increasingly concerned about the damage the Rangoon bombing incident has done to its international image. DPRK media treatment of International censure over the bombing originally indicated Pyongyang hoped the damage could be limited, but it now suggests the North has come toess sanguine view.

Pyongyang has intensified its efforts to rebut allegations concerning the North's role in the attempt on ROK President Chon Tu-hwan's life. Onecember the Foreign Ministryemorandum, carried by KCNA the next day, which contained the most detailed, authoritative rebuttal to date of charges that the October bombing was the work of North Korean agents. Responding to testimony given at theecember trial in Rangoon of two suspects charged with the bombing, the memorandum denounced the trial as an "unfair" attempt to implicate North Korea in theThe memorandum argued that the trial actually demonstrated that the North is "innocent" and "upright"

The memorandum was preceded on the 9th by unusually detailed DPRK media coverageengthy roundtable discussion publishedapanese journal that questioned the case against the North and raised the possibility of South Korean involvement in the incident. Also on the 9th, the clandestine Voice of the Revolutionary Party for Reunificationhich is beamed from North to South Korea,engthy article by the RPR organization and propaganda department detailing examples of "filthy, slanderous anti-communist maneuvers" allegedly carried out by South Korea over the past three decades. The article went on to suggest that the South's version of the Rangoon incident was partistory of fabrications intended to discredit the North and bolster the position of South Korean leaders.

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In the past two weeks, Pyongyang also hasuch more combative posture in countering international reaction to theecember Nodong Sinmun commentary, reported the same day by KCNA,ewsweek article for claiming that North Korean embassies engage in

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terrorism and smug-ling. The sameRPR commentary noted South Korean efforts to gamer international support for sanctions against the North

and criticized an FRG official visiting Seoul Tut uitcussing "disciplinary measures" against the DPRK, criticism that had been omitted from previous North Korean media comn the visit.

This more aggressive stance was also exhibited inecember DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman's statement responding to Costa Rica's decision to break relations with the North over the Rangoon incident. The language used in the statement was noticeably harsher than that used in authoritative responses last month to Burma's decision to break relations with Pyongyang and to Japan's decision to impose sanctions against North Korea, lt also went beyond that used by the North in similar situations over the past decade, squarely "denouncing" the Costa Rican authorities for their actions and omitting even the usual pledge to continue to work for good relations with the Costa Rican "people."

Similarly, theecember DPRK memorandum on the bombing incident employed some of the sharpest language Pyongyang has yet used against Burma. The memorandum claimed thai "the Burmese authorities besmirched Uxar faces with their own bands by dancing to the drumbeating" of outside forces and that they will long suffer the "evil consequences ofimilarly harsh lone was employed against Burmaodems Sinmun commentary on the Mtb condemning the trial.

Kim ll-song appears lo havepecial effort lo repair the North's image in remarks he madeecember banquetisiting Guyanese delegation. Departing from the normal practice in recenthas been lo give ihe Korean biue only passing -Mention in banquet speeches forused the occasion to reaffirm specifically that the North has "no intention" of invading the South. That same assertion bad appeared5 November DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman's statement condemning Presides'. Reagan's visit lo Korea last month,ouo)

Original document.

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