Visits by Three Parliamentary Delegations from Finland in the Cold War Period to Kim Il Sung’s North Korea (1972, 1975 and 1984), Including Two Meetings with Kim Il Sung

This thesis deals with three official visits by Finnish parliamentarians to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. The first visit was made by a delegation from the Finnish group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 1972, a few months before Finland recognised both North and South Korea. The second visit, led by Speaker Sukselainen, was in 1975, and the last official parliamentary visit was in 1984, led by Speaker Pystynen. In the early 1970s, North Korea applied to join the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an organization founded by British and French parliamentarians in the late 19th century to bring together members of democratically elected parliaments. The DPRK Supreme People's Assembly's application was not immediately accepted - even though parliamentarians from several other socialist countries had already joined the IPU. The Finnish group of the IPU was ready to accept the North Koreans in the spirit of a détente - and, perhaps, also under the influence of Finlandization, which permeated Finnish foreign and, to some extent, domestic policy at the time. All three visits have been examined chronologically, focusing on the two meetings with "Supreme Leader" Kim Il Sung. Three participants in the 1972 visit have been interviewed and the results analysed. The thesis is based on unpublished reports of three visits, interviews, and handwritten notes from audiences with Kim Il Sung. A memorandum on the audience with President Kekkonen is also among the primary sources. The method used to examine the material was archival research (Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Parliament, and the National Library of Finland), source analysis, and content analysis. The research question is: How did the three official visits of Finnish parliamentary delegations to the DPRK during the Cold War and Finlandization era contribute to the establishment and development of Finnish diplomatic and other relations with Kim Il Sung’s North Korea? The thesis describes and analyses the content of the three visits, including interviews with three participants of the 1972 visit and the audience with President Kekkonen, with particular focus on the main discussions and the meetings with Kim Il Sung. Relations with North Korea were virtually non-existent in 1972. It was therefore natural to try to develop them through exchanges of high-level political and economic delegations that mapped out the terrain and prepared the ground for experts. In this broad context, official delegations from the Finnish Parliament also had a role to play. Given the extensive networks of Finnish MPs, they acted as conduits for further political, economic, and cultural relations between Finland and North Korea. The thesis shows that North Koreans, including Kim Il Sung, were genuinely interested in developing trade and technological cooperation with Finland. He even specified several potential areas for this cooperation. It also shows that President Kim and other North Korean leaders were trying to create the impression that there was no imminent danger of war on the Korean Peninsula, at least not from the northern side, which would have hindered exchanges between North Korea and Finland. Moreover, the thesis reveals that both Finnish diplomats and Members of Parliament were impressed by the various achievements of the North Koreans, although Kim Il Sung had characterised his country as still developing. Contextually, this thesis aims to explore a clearly delineated part of the political history of the Cold War, namely the phenomenon of Finlandization, i.e. Finland's subordinate policy as a small country neighbouring the Soviet superpower, and how Finlandization influenced the establishment of diplomatic relations with a country as distant as North Korea