 The 1937 Census showed 168,259 Koreans in the Soviet Union.However, officials in the Russian Far East viewed the Koreans' ethnic and family ties to the Japanese Empire with suspicion, which would soon set the stage for the deportation of the whole population.In 1937, facing reports from the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) that there were possibilities that Japanese would have infiltrate the Russian Far East by means of ethnic Korean spies, Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov signed Resolution 1428-326 ss, "On the Exile of the Korean Population from border "Raions" of the Far East Kray", on 21 August.