<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:Helvetica Neue-Light, Helvetica Neue Light, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif;font-size:13px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47689"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47706">Dear List members,</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47689"><span><br></span></div><div style="text-align:justify" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47948"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47949">let’s put my two
cents in. Readers of the list might be interested in the following excerpt of <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47950">Tyranny of the Weak </i>(p. 121):<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47951"></o:p></span></div><div style="text-align:justify" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47948"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><br></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47952"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47953">For example, in
November 1960 a Korean visited the Bulgarian embassy, trying to send a message
to the Bulgarian Communist Party critical of the KWP and asking the Bulgarians
to help the North Korean Party “correct” its mistakes. North Korean security
forces entered the embassy, despite the protests of the embassy staff, and
arrested the Korean. This was the last such incident at the Bulgarian embassy;
the Bulgarian ambassador remarked to his Soviet counterpart that he had never
seen such a hostile incident in another “fraternal” country. 130 <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47954"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47955"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47956"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47957"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47958"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47959">Footnote 130:
Soviet Embassy in DPRK, Report, 30 November 1960. AVPRF, Fond 0102, Opis 16,
Papka 85, Delo 7.<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47960"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47961"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47962"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47963"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47964"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47965">AVPRF stands for
Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation. The words fond, opis, papka,
and delo refer to folders, in decreasing order, with the smallest sub-folder
(delo) as the last one. The sub-folder specified in Footnote 130 of <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47966">Tyranny of the Weak</i> includes the diary
reports of A. M. Puzanov, Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK, from the period 9
August 1960 to 31 December 1960. As such, this folder can indeed be justly
expected to contain a diary report about a conversation that occurred between
Bulgarian Ambassador Georgi Kostov Bogdanov and his Soviet counterpart,
Ambassador Puzanov, on (or around) 30 November 1960.<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47967"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47968"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47969"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47970"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47971"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47972">Unfortunately,
Puzanov’s diary does not contain an entry for 30 November 1960. It cannot, for
the simple reason that from 10 November 1960 to 3 December 1960 Puzanov was in
Moscow on an official trip, rather than in Pyongyang, and thus there are no
entries in his diary for this period. This can be easily verified, since the
relevant part of Puzanov’s diary (19 November 1960) was translated into English
by Gary Goldberg and made publicly accessibly on the website of Woodrow Wilson
Center’s North Korea International Documentation Project (NKIDP): <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47973"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47974"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47975"><a href="http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/119488" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47976">http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/119488</a>
<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47977"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47978"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47979"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47980"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47981"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47982">Puzanov’s diary
does contain an entry (15 December 1960) recording a conversation between
Puzanov and Bogdanov about the measures taken by the DPRK security organs. It
does not mention, however, the episode described in <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47983">Tyranny of the Weak</i>., i.e., the entry of a North Korean citizen and
his subsequent arrest. Nor does it include Bogdanov’s statement about not
having encountered similar conduct in another socialist country:<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47984"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47985"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47986"><a href="http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/119493" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47987">http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/119493</a>
<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47988"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47989"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47990"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47991"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47992"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47993">Another entry
from Puzanov’s diary, dated 9 December 1960, makes only a brief reference to
Bogdanov. <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47994"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47995"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47996"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47997"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47998"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47999">Apart from
NKIDP, the original Russian documents can also be found in a document collection
published in South Korea and currently stored in electronic form in the
National Library in Seoul: </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-fareast-language:KO" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48000">T’ongil munhwa yŏnkuso, <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48001">Pyŏngyang soryŏn taesakwan pimil sŏch’ol [Classifed materials of the
Soviet Embassy in Pyongyang]</i>. Seoul: k’oria k’ont’ench’u raep, 2002. The
relevant PDF file is KM012204 (pp. 23, 30, and 36).<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48002"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48003"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-fareast-language:KO" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48004"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48005"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48006"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-fareast-language:KO" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48007">This raises the question which
source the author of <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48008">Tyranny of the Weak</i>
used to provide the information above. It is a matter of further concern that
in a conversation with Hungarian Ambassador Karoly Prath, Bogdanov described
the aforesaid episode slightly differently, that is, he specified that the DPRK
security organs arrested said Korean citizen after his departure from the
embassy, and thus they did not enter the embassy’s premises “despite the
protests of the embassy staff.” I do not need to explain how great the
difference is in international law and diplomatic protocol. For the description
of the episode on the basis of Hungarian sources, see my book, Kim Il Sung in
the Khrushchev Era (pp. 161-162):<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48009"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48010"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-fareast-language:KO" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48011"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48012"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48013"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48014">A typical
example of this behavior was mentioned by Bulgarian Ambassador Bogdanov, who
had a conversation with his Hungarian counterpart on 25 November 1960. He told
Práth that a “Korean comrade” had recently visited the Bulgarian Embassy, and
intended to write a letter to the BCP CC in order to describe the “mistakes”
made by the KWP leadership. Sofia should help the KWP to correct these
mistakes, the dissident stressed. Authorized by the secretary of the embassy to
write the letter there, he was still writing it when a group of state security
men, informed by the North Korean interpreter, came to the embassy, and pressed
the secretary for the letter. Bogdanov told the visitor to leave the embassy,
whereupon he told the secretary in broken Russian: “Look, now they’ll arrest
me, and they’ll say I am anti-party!” He was indeed promptly arrested, and
henceforth no other Korean dared to visit the embassy. The Bulgarian ambassador
told Práth that it was only in Turkey where he had experienced such hostile
behavior on the part of the authorities.123 <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48015"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48016"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48017"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48018"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48019"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48020">Endnote 123: Hungarian
Embassy to the DPRK, Report, 30 November 1960, KTS, 8. doboz, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_49442">5/f, 002482/1961
(p. 318).</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48025"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48026"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48027"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48028"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48029">KTS stands for
Hungarian National Archives (MNL), XIX-J-1-j Korea 1945-1964, Top Secret
Documents (Korea, Top Secret for short). Doboz is Hungarian for box. I made the
relevant chapter of my book accessible on my website:<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48030"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48031"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48032"><a href="https://korea-kr.academia.edu/BalazsSzalontai/Papers" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48033">https://korea-kr.academia.edu/BalazsSzalontai/Papers</a>
<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48034"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48035"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48036"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48037"> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48038"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48039">I would like to
encourage list members to compare the primary and secondary sources cited above.<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48040"></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48038"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><br></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48038"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Yours sincerely,</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48038"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Dr. Balazs Szalontai</span></font></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48038" dir="ltr"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Korea University, Sejong Campus, Department of North Korean Studies</span></font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47689">
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;" dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48041"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48042"> </span></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_48043"><br><br></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47711" style="display: block;"> <div style="font-family: Helvetica Neue-Light, Helvetica Neue Light, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 13px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47710"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, Sans-Serif; font-size: 16px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47709"> <div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47708"> <font size="2" face="Arial" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47707"> <hr size="1" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_49393"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Don Baker <ubcdbaker@hotmail.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies@koreanstudies.com> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Friday, 16 September 2016, 0:25<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [KS] Re-revised posting "Revoking a Recommendation"<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47715"><br><div id="yiv9280806856"><style>#yiv9280806856 #yiv9280806856 --
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#yiv9280806856 </style><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47714"><div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47713"><font size="4" style="font-family:Helvetica;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47712">I wouldn’t trust Brian Myers to evaluate someone else’s scholarship. He actually posted on his blog a while back a recommendation to readers to trust a totally concocted “account” of the May 18, 1980, massacre in Kwangju that claimed that the whole incident was caused by North Korean agents who had infiltrated Kwangju before May 18: <span lang="EN-CA" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47717">Daniel Kim (Kim Taeryŏng) Y<i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47716">ŏksarosŏ ŭi 5.18: 5.18 chaep’an pŏmniŭi mosun </i>[Looking at May 18 in historical perspective: Legal contradictions in the trials related to the May 18 incident- (Seoul: Pibong Books, 2013)</span> Myers went on to assert on his blog that "there is evidence or testimony t<span style="color:rgb(35, 35, 35);">o back up the claim of DPRK </span><span style="color:rgb(35, 35, 35);">involvement.</span><font color="#232323">”</font> He has now removed that post from his blog, so maybe he realized how ridiculous his assertion was. (The original posting was at <a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="http://sthelepress.com/index.php/2016/06/14/recommendation-may-18th-as-history-2013/" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47718">http://sthelepress.com/index.php/2016/06/14/recommendation-may-18th-as-history-2013/</a></font><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47719"><font size="4"><br clear="none"></font><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474000688593_47750"><font size="4">Don Baker</font></div></div><br clear="none">Don Baker <div>Professor</div><div>Department of Asian Studies </div><div>University of British Columbia </div><div>Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z2 </div><div>don.baker@ubc.ca</div><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><div class="yiv9280806856yqt1051770587" id="yiv9280806856yqt68724"><div><hr id="yiv9280806856stopSpelling">From: jiyulkim@gmail.com<br clear="none">Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2016 00:09:00 -0400<br clear="none">To: koreanstudies@koreanstudies.com<br clear="none">Subject: [KS] Re-revised posting "Revoking a Recommendation"<br clear="none"><br clear="none"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:12.8px;">[NOTE TO ADMINISTRATOR: please discard two earlier versions and review this for posting]</div><div style="font-size:12.8px;"><br clear="none"></div><div style="font-size:12.8px;">I came across this recent posting by B. R. Myers revoking his recommendation for Charles Armstrong's <i style="">Tyranny of the Weak</i> (2013)<i style="">.</i> Myers' revocation is, for me, unprecedented.</div><div style="font-size:12.8px;"><br clear="none" style=""></div><div style="font-size:12.8px;">Myers compares Armstrong's <i style="">Tyranny </i>with Balazs Szalontai's <i style="">Kim Il Sung in the Khrushchev Era</i> (2005)<i style="">. </i>He gives detailed examples why he can't support the book. If there is any truth to what Myers says then it is all very disturbing since Armstrong's books are widely admired and used.</div><div style="font-size:12.8px;"><br clear="none" style=""></div><div style="font-size:12.8px;">I wonder what others think. Myers' post can be found at </div><div style="font-size:12.8px;"><a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="http://sthelepress.com/" style="background-color:transparent;">http://sthelepress.com/</a></div><div style="font-size:12.8px;"><br clear="none" style=""></div><div style="font-size:12.8px;">Jiyul Kim</div><div style="font-size:12.8px;">Oberlin College</div><div style="font-size:12.8px;">Oberlin, Ohio</div></div></div></div> </div></div></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div></div></body></html>