The Two Koreas_ A Contemporary History - Don Oberdorfer [193]
To the Entire Party Members and People, our entire working class, cooperative farmers, officers and men of the People's Army, intellectuals, youth and students,
The Central Committee of the Workers' Party, the Central Military Commission of the Party, the National Defense Commission, the Central People's Committee and the Administration Council of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea report to the entire people of the country with the deepest grief that the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea passed away from a sudden attack of illness at 02:00 on July 8, 1994. Our respected fatherly leader who has devoted his whole life to the popular masses' cause of independence and engaged himself in tireless activities for the prosperity of the motherland and happiness of the people, for the reunification of our country and independence of the world, till the last moments of his life, departed from us to our greatest sorrow.
There followed a lengthy obituary in praise of "a great revolutionary ... genius in leadership ... the greatest of great men ... a great military strategist and ever-victorious iron-willed brilliant commander ... the sun of the nation and lodestar of national reunification." Somber music followed, interspersed with readings from Kim's memoirs.
As the message sank in, officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and many other places in the country broke down in front of the television sets and began weeping. Within a short time, residents of Pyongyang began converging on the giant statue of Kim on Mansu Hill near the city center, many of them crying hysterically. Before long, 15,000 to 20,000 people had gathered at the statue and in nearby streets, with lines of others stretching back as far as the eye could see. Ambulances were on duty, with aid workers assisting those who fainted or complained of feeling weak. Within a few hours, Pyongyang hospitals were overrun with heart attack victims. The areas around the many statues and other monuments to Kim elsewhere in the country were also overflowing with mourners.
In a strange coincidence, American and North Korean delegations headed by U.S. assistant secretary of state Robert Gallucci and DPRK deputy foreign minister Kang Sok Ju finally met to begin the long-awaited third round of nuclear negotiations on July 8, the day Kim died. Oblivious to the momentous but still secret event at home, the Pyongyang delegation reconfirmed the arrangements reached during the Carter mission to freeze its existing nuclear program in return for light-water reactors. From the American standpoint, surprisingly good progress was made. Following the meeting and private talks at a reception that night, Navy Captain Thomas Flanigan, the Joint Chiefs of Staff representative on the U.S. delegation, wrote an e-mail to his superior in the Pentagon, "They're here to deal. We need to understand that. Now it's an issue of what are we willing to negotiate."
At five A.M. local time on the morning of July 9, which was to be the second day of the talks, the news of Kim's death reached Geneva. Later in the morning, the shaken North Koreans, who had not been informed prior to the official announcement, prepared to return to Pyongyang, promising that the negotiations would continue as soon as possible.
In Washington, it was shortly after eleven P.M. local time when David E. Brown, the country director for Korea, got the news from the State Department Operations Center and began working on an official reaction. Senior officials were scattered around the world: President Clinton, Secretary of State Christopher, and their