COMMUNISTS’ CHARGES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26512, 29 August 1951, Page 7

COMMUNISTS’ CHARGES

Comment By Generals

TOKYO, August 27. The Communist commanders in North Korea, Generals Kim II Sung j, ind Peng Teh-Huai, to-night accused 0 General Ridgway of the responsibility j for breaking oft the cease-fire talks. s The Peking radio broadcast a mes- $ sage from the Communist leaders which said that General Ridgway's j message rejecting the Communist 1 allegation that a united Nations aero- ] ilane had bombed Kaesong was en- j irely unsatisfactory. c The Chinese commanders asked General Ridgway to order his liaison offi- c cers to Kaesong for a further investiga- < tion of the alleged violation of the I Kaesong neutral zone as a prerequisite t for the resumption of the talks. < The Communist reply said: “We < hereby once more propose that this grave act of provocation should be J dealt with by your side with ?n atti- j tude of serious responsibility. Then a J continuation of the negotiations for a ] just and reasonable armistice agree- J ment can be guaranteed.” The Communist message said that the responsibility for breaking up the cease-fire negotiations never would . fall on the Communists. Earlier Charges Repeated 1 General Kim II Sung, who is the ; North Korean Prime Minister, and * General Peng Teh-huai, who is commander of the Chinese “Volunteers' 1 in Korea, repeated their earlier charges that the Allies had attempted to murder the Communist delegation. : They denied General Ridgway’s contention that the Communists had fabricated the alleged bombing incident The Communist charges repeated the accusations of active provocation | on the part of the Allies, charged dis- <

on me par* ux me xm.es, —— tortion of facts, and demanded that General Ridgway should allow the full texts of all messages exchanged between the two sides to be published. The Communist Note concluded by stating that the Communists were waiting for General Ridgway’s reply. The Peking radio broadcast during the day a mounting list of fresh charges against the United Nations, including a new allegation that the Kaesong conference site was attacked three times—not once-—on the night of August 22. It was this alleged incident, it was said, that led the Communists to break off the sub-commit-tee “man to man” talks. The 1500-word report in the English broadcast said that an American aeroplane dropped four napalm bombs on its first run, 12 anti-personnel bombs on its second run, and strafed the area when it returned a third time. The Peking radio further alleged that “after the murder of the platoon leader, Yao Ching-Siang, on August 19. at Panmunjon, plainclothps and armed American and South Korean bandits entered Panmunjon on August 25 with the intention of murdering another of our patrol guards. On the afternoon of August 25, seven American aeroplanes flew over Kaesong twice.*’ Later the Peking radio said that American and S.outh Korean troops had told refugees jn Panmunlon on August 25 that they would attack and occupy Kaesong within five days. The radio added: "From these facts and General Ridgway’s recent barbarous and unreasonable attitude, one would conclude that he had already made preparations for breaking off peace talks.”