New U.N. Plan For Truce In Korea

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27038, 13 May 1953, Page 9

New U.N. Plan For Truce In Korea

(NX. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) SEOUL, May 12. General Mark Clark, the United Nations Commander-in-Chief, announced today that the United Nations Command will shortly present a counter-proposal to the eight-point Communist truce plan. General Clark said he believed the counter-proposal might lead to an armistice in the Korean war. He made his announcement when he arrived in Seoul by air from Tokyo shortly after the United Nations’ chief truce negotiator, General William Harrison, had described the Communist proposals on prisoners as “simply not workable.”

General Clark, in making his announcement pf the new proposal, said: “We have studied the Communist eight-point programme. We have given great consideration, have asked questions and have received answers. However, we will submit a counterproposal shortly.” He said he felt the new United Nations plan would give the Communists the opportunity to agree to a truce without “easing the United Nations stand against forced repatriation.” General Harrison told correspondents after today’s meeting that he got no satisfaction, but some criticisms from the Communists. The Allies today charged the Communists with disregarding questions on the Communist eight-point proposal on the disposition of prisoners. At today’s session of the talks, the chief Communist negotiator, General Nam 11, continued to insist on solving' the problem by a political Conference. He argued that the situation would have changed entirely by the time the conference was begun. The war would be stopped, willing prisoners would have gone home, and those whose minds had been changed by “explanations” would also have gone. General Nam 11 said: “If there should still be prisoners of war who have not' requested repatriation, the disposition of these individuals obviously is part of the post-war peaceful settlement of the Korean question, not a question of the Korean armistice.”