Gift guide by Kim Il Sung to 'Great Leader Stalin' made public

North Korea

Published: 21 Feb. 2022, 19:05 Updated: 21 Feb. 2022, 20:00

Gift guide by Kim Il Sung to 'Great Leader Stalin' made public

A vase inlaid with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's face in mother-of-pearl, presented by North Korean leader Kim Il Sung during his visit to Moscow in February 1949 [KIM HYUN-DONG]

An original copy of a guide book detailing the gifts presented by North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin has been made public by the JoongAng Ilbo's Center for Cultural Unification Studies to mark the 50th anniversary of the institute's founding.

While world leaders’ gifts to the late Kim and his successors — his son Kim Jong-il and grandson and current leader Kim Jong-un — are touted by the regime as signs of international respect for the country’s leaders at the International Friendship Exhibition Hall in Pyongyang, with Stalin’s present of a train locomotive and automobile to Kim being public knowledge, less is known about the Kims’ gifts to their foreign counterparts.

Titled “Understanding the Gifts to Great Leader Stalin,” the guide is a hand-compiled booklet composed of 30 A3 (11.7 inch by 16.5 inch) pages. The list of gifts, their descriptions, photos and sponsors are written in Korean, with extra sheets of paper in between the pages to prevent the photographs from sticking to the preceding pages.

The booklet was commissioned by the North Korean Cabinet on Feb. 21, 1949, a day before the 37-year-old Kim Il Sung arrived in Moscow for a month-long stay almost 73 years ago, during which he requested Stalin send assistance to his then-fledgling regime, which had been founded under Soviet supervision.

According to the catalogue inside the booklet, the gifts prepared by North Korea on the occasion of Kim’s visit included 36 pieces of 26 types of furniture, including bookcases, office tables, cabinets, dining tables and decorative works.

Also included among the gifts was a floral vase with a portrait of Stalin inlaid in mother-of-pearl — a seeming attempt by the North Korean leader to flatter the Soviet leader.

A photograph in the gift catalogue displays the various pieces of furniture presented to Stalin by Kim Il Sung arranged in a sitting room. [KIM HYUN-DONG]

The booklet also includes sample photographs of offices, living rooms and bedrooms decorated with the same kinds of items listed in the catalogue, as well as photos of luxury furniture used by privileged people such as high-ranking North Korean officials or the wealthy. According to the item descriptions, the gifts were manufactured by 11 people, including Choi Yon-hae, a “small-time citizen.”

A photograph of North Korean craftsmen working on the gifts Kim Il Sung gave to Stalin, which was included in the catalogue booklet. [KIM HYUN-DONG]

Commenting on the revelation that Kim presented gifts to Stalin, a former high-ranking North Korean defector who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “The North Korean regime promotes the idea that the only [respectable] politicians on Earth are Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un,” but added, “Now we know that Kim Il Sung prepared a gift for Stalin.”

Park Myung-rim, an expert on the Korean War, said, “Kim Il Sung undertook an official visit to the Soviet Union on Feb. 22, 1949, for the first time since the establishment of the North Korean regime on Sept. 9, 1948. At that time, he asked for military and economic support, and Kim seems to have prepared gifts with all his heart.”

According to Soviet archives, now stored at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kim asked for Soviet military and economic aid at a meeting with Stalin on March 5 with Deputy Prime Minister Park Hon-yong.

The cover of the gift catalogue of items presented to Stalin by Kim Il Sung. [KIM HYUN-DONG]

Kim hoped for a loan worth $40 million to $50 million, which Stalin said he would pay in rubles, but Kim demanded the loan in U.S. dollars. He eventually got the loan in rubles, to purchase goods from the Soviet Union.

Kim also requested a 58-kilometer (36-mile) rail link connection between Aoji (modern-day Kyonghung County in North Hamgyong Province) and Graschino (where Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun formed a guerilla band) near Vladivostok, Russia, along with air routes between North Korea and the Soviet Union and a dispatch of Russian language teachers to the North.

At the meeting, Stalin showed interest in the current status of South Korean and U.S. troops, and Kim requested support from the Soviet Air Force and Navy. After working-level consultations, the two sides signed an agreement on economic and military cooperation between the two countries on March 11, 1949, which promised Soviet assistance for the construction of factories, establishment of air and rail transport links and the temporary stationing of the Soviet warships at Chongjin.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]