SOVIET OFFER ON KOREA

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26886, 12 November 1952, Page 9

SOVIET OFFER ON KOREA

Rejection By U.N. Predicted

(NJZ. Press Association— Copyright)

(Rec _ B P- m -> . . NEW YORK, November 10. and Pe? AlHeswnTS 8 ? hat the United States th- United Na7innl p r5 he i S^ Viet P ro P osal > P ut before Vv.hinskv fir an 11 Poll 5 1Cal Commi ttee today by Mr •’ a " U-nation commission “to settle the Korean question.” seine me

will rejection

deal ( wit ?S tS of a to conclusion of an armLtice K ° rea eVen bef ° re the

(2) It does not accept the principle of voluntary renatriation of war prisoners and rejects the right of polSl asylum, w n^v L " lted States spokesman commented after Mr A yshmksys speech that the central problem was not one of machinery, but of will and desire. ’

In suggesting the creation of the commission, Mr Vyshinsky, in a two and a half hour speech to the committee, did not budge an inch on the disputed issue of the forcible repatriation of prisoners of war. He said that the proposed commission should merely give its assistance to the repatriation of all prisoners.

tt 1 ?? , sa i d that the adoption by the United Nations of the United States resolution (calling for an immediate cease fire with provisions for voluntary repatriation) would wreck the truce talks at Panmunjon and lead th e P rotr .action of the Korean war. Mr Vyshinsky rejected the compromise proposals offered by Mexico and Peru on the prisoners issue as scarcely distinguishable from the proposals of the American Command and incompatible with international law. ’

Mr Vyshinsky had proposed the creation of a commission on October 29. . Today he said he wanted to clarify his position with a revised draft. The two main points were: Naming the 11 countries—the Soviet Union, Communist China, North Korea, South Korea, the United States, Britain, France, India, Burma. Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia. Giving the commission the task of helping the repatriation of all war prisoners. Mr Vyshinsky asserted that the United Nations had not observed the Geneva Convention which, he claimed, insisted on the repatriation of all prisoners, and he said that the Soviet Union would not budge from this position. Text of Resolution The text of the revised resolution read: “The General Assembly, having considered the report of the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea, considers it necessary to establish a commission for the peaceful settlement of the Korean question with the participation of the parties directly concerned and other States, including the States which have not participated in the war in Korea, v

“The commission is to be composed of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the U.S.S.R., the People’s Republic of China. India, Burma, Switzerland. Czechoslovakia, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea and South Korea. “The Assembly is to instruct this commission to take immediate measures for a settlement of the Korean question on the basis of the unification of Korea, carried out by Koreans themselves under the supervision of the commission, including extending all possible assistance to the repatriation of all prisoners of war by both sides.’’

Mr Vyshinsky said that the United States was not interested in ending the Korean war, but wanted to keep it going and expand it in order to eain control of the world and increase the profits of the American billionaires. The United States resolution confirmed that America did not want peace through negotiation, but was interested only in a “military decision with victory at all costs.’’

The committee had waited tensely for Mr Vyshinsky to speak, hoping that he would answer the questions put previously by Mr Selwyn Lloyd, the British Minister of State, as to whether the Soviet Union favoured the forced repatriation of prisoners. Mr Vyshinsky did not answer Mr Lloyd directly, but attacked the British delegate for saying that the United Nations would not repatriate prisoners at the point of the bayonet. That problem did not exist, said Mr Vyshinsky. He added that the real problem was that the American Command “resorted to bayonets tc extract from prisoners a refusal to be repatriated ” “Military Fiasco” Mr Vyshinsky said that the United States was floundering in a military “fiasco” in Korea and Was using pressure, coercion and brutal repression to force prisoners to declare against returning to their homelands. Referring to the United States resolution before the Assembly, Mr Vyshinskv said: “The United States has done this in ultimatum form, knowing in advance that this principle is totally unacceptable and therefore has been rejected. Conseouently, any insistence upon it inevitably will lead to the collapse of the Panmunjon truce talks and a further protraction of the war.” He said that the United States Secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson) and the American Command did not shrink from the most flagrant violation of international treaties and conventions in their insistence upon voluntary prisoner repatriation. “We can only express amazement at the cynicism of those who deal daily with prisoners of war,” he said. “They take a generous pose and try to moralise, even before they have committed to the earth the victims of their bloody crimes.”