Elections in Korea

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25548, 16 July 1948, Page 6

Elections in Korea

There is little doubt that Russian influence has directed the Commun-ist-dominated North Korea People’s Committee to decide on elections next month for a legislature claiming authority over the whole of Korea. The People’s Committee exists at the pleasure of the Russian occupation forces. Soviet policy for nearly three years has been against unity in Korea unless it is Commun-ist-controlled. The decision to hold elections, which are unlikely to be either free or democratic, is another move to bring the whole country under Soviet influence when the American and Russian occupation forces are withdrawn. A united Korean Government, which the North Korean political parties now want, could have been formed months ago if the Russians had not flouted the General Assembly’s decision to send a United Nations commission to Korea to supervise free and democratic elections for the whole country. The commission was refused access to North Korea;

and the Russians ignored it by setting up a “people’s republic” on Communist lines for the zone under their control. Communists in North Korea monopolise political and economic posts, but they are in a minority; and the Russians knew that free elections would certainly upset their rule. The United Nations commission was thus compelled to confine its activities to South Korea, which contains twothirds of the Korean population. In the elections there 90.6 per cent, of the 7,729,909 persons registered cast their votes, although threatened with violence by the South Korean Communists. The elections showed that all the political parties except the Communists, who boycotted proceedings, were anxious to set up a freely-elected Korean Government as the first step to Korean independence, and that only about 5 per cent, of the adult population were likely to support the Communists and their sympathisers. This rebuff to the Communists, and the establishment of a freely-elected National Assembly in South Korea have doubtless induced the Russians to encourage the election of a legislature ostensibly national in character, which will do their bidding, and work to unify the country under Communist control. The Russians’ chief aim is to keep North Korea firmly under their influence, for it has coal mines, hydro-electric installations, and other facilities for heavy industry. But South Korea is the rice-growing area, and a balanced economy is impossible in either half of the country alone. Therefore, the Russians must extend I their influence in the south if they wish to hold fast in the north. I