Kee Kwang-seo

Terentii F. Shtykov, the conductor of the Soviet policy on the Korean Peninsula after the liberation of Korea, played a key role in the realization of his country’s interests. The USSR set the main goal of its policy on the Korean Peninsula to create a Soviet-friendly government, so that the Korean Peninsula would not fall under the influence of other powers that posed a threat to its security. T. Shtykov was at the forefront of achieving these political goals. Since the establishment of the Provisional Government of Korea under the agreement between the USA and the USSR failed at the 2nd Joint US-Soviet Commission in 1947, the Soviet leadership sought a solution to the Korean problem through proposals such as the simultaneous withdrawal of US and Soviet troops. However, this plan had no choice but to be accepted as a justification for making the division of the country a fait accompli. Although T. Shtykov once considered holding a general election between North and South on population proportions in accordance of the US proposal, he was not sure that this would necessarily benefit his country. So when South Korea moved to establish a separate government, North Korea followed the same path. For T. Shtykov, the creation of a Soviet-friendly government on the Korean Peninsula, not socialist, but at least pro-Soviet, was a plan minimum.