D.K. Interview With Pol Pot, 1979

Kampuchean Prime Minister Pol Pot recently told Japanese reporters: “Viet Nam is trying to complete its war
of aggression during the present dry season, but it is failing to accomplish its ambitions because of difficulties
within Viet Nam and the fighting conducted by our guerrillas, who are spread like the meshes of a net within
Kampuchea.” A group of Japanese reporters travelled on December 8 and 9 into the heartland of the Kamp-
uchean guerrilla resistance movement to conduct this rare interview with the Prime Minister. In good spirits,
he replied to their questions: “We have a complete network of contacts linking the East, Central and West. If
a certain place is attacked, then we resort to the offensive in another place to keep enemy forces stationary.
Viet Nam has poured 200,000 men into Kampuchea and eight divisions are now bottled up in the eastern and
northern parts of the country.” During the four-hour interview, Pol Pot noted that at present the Great National
Patriotic and Democratic Union is Kampuchea’s “supreme body.” Its foremost task is to protect the nation and
the people from extermination by Hanoi and its aim is to unite Kampuchean forces at home and abroad. He
said that he is in contact with all elements, including the Free Khmer and Khmer Serika, and that he has con
-tacted Samdech Norodom Sihanouk on several occasions. The Prime Minister pointed out that his country
enjoyed “the support of the majority of the countries of the world and the ASEAN countries in particular.” Noting
that the ASEAN countries are facing the threat of Vietnamese aggression, he said that “the Southeast Asian
countries and those in the Pacific region are well aware that it would be wrong to pursue an appeasement policy
when the Soviet Union and Viet Nam are waging a full-scale war in Kampuchea.” Pol Pot also gave another
interview to Per Forsling, a correspondent for the Swedish paper Svenska Dagbladet, during which he stressed
that Viet Nam is trying to annihilate the whole of the Kampuchean nation with a view to turning Kampuchea
into a springboard for further expansion in Southeast Asia. He cited Hanoi’s use of toxic chemicals as one
example of its efforts to wipe out the three-million-strong Kampuchean nation.