Independent diplomacy between North Korea and China following the 20th Communist Congress of the Soviet Union

UnrestrictedKim Il Sung sought independence from the total control of the Soviet Union. He achieved this through closer relations with China. Khrushchev's de-Stalinization and desire for more peaceful relations with the West in February 1956 led to closer relations between China and North Korea. In August 1958, Kim Il Sung tried to purge all those who opposed him from the Korean Workers Party. China and the Soviet Union intervened immediately and held a new September Plenary Session. The Soviet Union and China failed at insisting on the removal of Kim Il Sung from power. Kim Il Sung maintained his position of ultimate control in North Korean politics. As a result of his survival against the foreign-backed coup plotting, Kim Il Sung felt that he had attained a new level of independence from both countries.; Khrushchev's de-Stalinization two months later encouraged Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung to act as a team to maintain their authority and cults of personality. North Korea and China agreed to remove Chinese People's Volunteers from North Korea based on their 'mutual trust' and tried to have balanced 'bilateral relations' through various agreements between the two countries through 1957 to 1959. Later from 1960, North Korea started criticizing the Soviet Union in indirect ways in public and supported China in the Sino-Soviet split. From 1963, direct criticism on the Soviet Union appeared in Nodong Sinmun in lengthy editorials. North Korea was asserting, through its closeness with China, its independence from Soviet attempts at ideological and diplomatic control. In the end, the 20th Communist Congress acted as a catalyst for North Korea forging an entirely new and independent path of 'pendulum diplomacy'