FIRST KOREAN PRESIDENT

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25552, 21 July 1948, Page 5

FIRST KOREAN PRESIDENT

DR. SYNGMAN RHEE ELECTED AMERICAN KILLED IN BORDER ATTACK (N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) SEOUL, July 19. Dr. Syngman Rhee, aged 74, a strong anti-Communist, has been elected first President of the new Republic of Korea. The National Assembly, carrying out its first duty under the newlyadopted Constitution gave Dr. Rhee 180 votes. Mr Klim Koo, who opposes the American policies in Korea, had 13 votes; Ahn Chai Hong, the retired Civil Administrator, two; and Dr. Philip Jaisohn, an American citizen, one vote. The vote for Dr. Jaisohn started a sharp dispute on whether an American was eligible to receive a vote, and the Assembly finally invalidated the ballot for Dr. Jaisphn. The United States Army has announced that five American enlisted men at an outpost 400 yards south of the thirty-eighth parallel (the border between North and South Korea), near Kaeson, were ambushed by an unknown number of Koreans dressed in civilian clothes. One enlisted man was killed and one wounded. The attackers used grenades and small arms. The Americans returned the fire. The attackers crossed the parallel into North Korea. This was the first* American death in a clash along the parallel.