A Change of Course For the Flying Red Horse

For more than a decade, the most reliably raucous of Peking's Asian allies was North Korea's Kim Il Sung. No longer. Since early this year, Kim has been steering an increasingly independent course. To Moscow's delight and Peking's chagrin, Kim & ; Co. chose to keep silent in the current Indo-Pakistani crisis; even over the explosive issue of Viet Nam, North Korea has been less vitriolic than Peking wishes.

The reasons for Pyongyang's shift are largely economic. To close the gap between North Korea's backward agriculture and burgeoning industry, Kim seven years ago launched a "Great Leap Forward" of his own. As a symbol, he picked Chollima -- a legendary flying horse that could cover 1,000 ri (300 miles) in a single bound. A bronze Chollima was mounted atop a tower in downtown Pyongyang, and 11 million North Koreans stolidly set out to increase production of everything from pig iron to fertilizer. By late 1963, Chollima had begun to stumble: inadequate transportation caused foul-ups in distribution; plants lay idle for days waiting for raw materials. Kim's flying Red horse clearly needed outside help--and quickly.

Friendship & Pride. Kim saw his chance with the downfall of Nikita Khrushchev. Peking's resources were too thinly spread for Kim to count on Chinese help, but Russia's new leaders wanted to revive friendships in Asia that Khrushchev had ended. Pyongyang publications soon began soft-pedaling attacks on Moscow's "revisionism," and when Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin visited Kim last February, the stage was set for rapprochement. Soviet aid--cut off in 1963 at the height of North Korea's polemics--was resumed. Under a military assistance pact signed last May, Russia will probably supply North Korea with much-needed aircraft fuel for Kim's MIGs, plus antiaircraft missiles like those given to North Viet Nam.

Kim's new emphasis on jooche (national identity) should pay off nicely. Even before he patched things up with Moscow, the North Korean boss had made strides in rebuilding his nation. Pyongyang--completely leveled during the Korean War--has been reconstructed along Moscow mausoleum lines:broad, empty boulevards; vast worker apartment buildings that house stores and restaurants on their ground floors."It's the dullest city in the world, " says a recent Japanese visitor, "but one senses an atmosphere of fierce pride."

Injury & Insult. In keeping with the new nationalism, Kim permits women to wear colorful national costume rather than pajama-style uniforms; men wear Western-style suits. Even the Peking-to-Pyongyang railroad is "Koreanized" when it clatters across the Yalu into North Korea: the Chinese dining car is unhitched and replaced by one serving spicy Korean kimchi.

All this emphasis on independence has caused a considerable cooling in Peking's regard for Kim. During North Korea's recent Liberation Day celebration, Red China sent only a lowly sub-secretary to the Pyongyang ceremonies; Moscow sent its rising young Presidium star, Aleksandr Shelepin. And rumors reaching India suggest that Peking has lately demanded a 100-sq.-mi. piece of territory near the Yalu in "payment" for its aid to North Korea during the Korean War. "The North Koreans are treading a tightwire," observes one Western diplomat. "Ideologically they would like to lean toward the Chinese, but economically and militarily they can get more from Russia."

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