DEFERMENT OF ARMISTICE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27072, 22 June 1953, Page 9

DEFERMENT OF ARMISTICE

Communist Note To Allies

(NJZ. Press Association—Copyright,

SEOUL, June 20 The prospect of an armistice in todaT appeared definitely deferred

dele ffa*es at a plenary meeting of the armistice negotiates demanded that all the prisoners released in Korea be recovered. They asked whether the United Nations Command was able to control me South Korean Government and army and, if not, haw any armistice agreement could be implemented. A letter from two Communist leaders, Generate Kim 11 Sung and Peng Teh Huai, to the United Nations Commander, General Mark Clark, was worded as if an armistice agreement had been assured until the South Korean President, Dr. Rhee, on his own responsibility, ordered the release of non-Communist North Koreans from the United Nations prisoner camps. . A brief plenary session at Panmunjon today went into recess indefinitely, at the Communist request. A version of the Communists’ letter was made available from Communist sources. Its text included the allegation that the United Nations Command connived at the release of prisoners by failing to act on previous warnings that the Rhee Government planned this action. “Yet your side did not adopt any actual measures to prevent the incident,” said the letter. “Is the United Command able to control the

is South Korean Government and Army? ’’ If not, does an armistice in Korea ine elude the Syngman Rhee clique?” h The letter continued: “If it is not included, then your side must be respone sible for the recovery immediately of •- all prisoners of war who are ‘at it liberty.’” * The Communists said the escapees d were “press-ganged” into the South e Korean Army. They demanded assurd ances that such incidents would not „ occur. ■j “The attitude of conniving which t your side has taken all along has af- ; fected the implementation of the armistice agreement which is ready to * be signed. “This incident of releasing and ‘ coercing prisoners of war by Dr. 1 Syngman Rhee which has now oc- ' curved proves that the forcible reten- ’ tion of prisoners of war, which our * side is against, has becofne an unques- * tionable fact.

• “The wrong stand, and the attitude i of connivance, which your side has 5 taken all along on this question, could J not but have directly caused the occurrence of this incident and affected f the implementation of an armistice ' agreement ready to be signed.” ’ The Communist letter was in reply to a letter from the United Nations , senior truce delegate, LieutenantGeneral William Harrison, which was • passed over two days ago, reporting the release of the prisoners. South Korean Attitude In Seoul the South Korean Foreign Minister, Mr Pyung Yung Tai, today called on General Clark to release all , the prisoners who had been recaptured ) since their escape, and all anti-Com- ' munist North Koreans still held in J prison camps. Mr Pyung wrote to General Clark: , “As regards the 971 prisoners said to • have been retaken and the several { thousands still being kept in stockades, { I ask you to turn them over to us to be released by our own hands, if r possible, in the manner least likely * to cause trouble.’’ t Mr Pyung said he regretted that 7 “several scores of prisoners were r killed and injured by United Nations guards,’’ and added: “I should like to r call your attention to the mutual need s of refraining from saying or doing i anything that might be likely to provoke the passions of the masses, which. e once let loose, may easily get out of r control.’’

The South Korean Provost Marshal, General Won Yong Duk, said today that the South Korean military police would release all the anti-Communist

North Korean prisoners at any cost. Asked by. correspondents whether South Korean police would not hesitate to fire on United Nations security guards, a spokesman for the Provost Marshal said “it is a possibility.”

Cabinet Meeting The South Korean Cabinet today held an eight-hour session to discuss measures to protect escaped prisoners against any attempt to recapture them. The officials said the discussion centred on these points—both the Government and Army to provide transport to disperse the prisoners as widely as possible; to provide clothing and a week’s ration to each man; to issue the men with identification cards; to keep the prisoners under local police surveillance: to find them work. The Government has organised a dispersal scheme in Pusan, where many of the prisoners went into hiding. The Vice-Minister of Social Affairs said that prisoners who wish to go out of Pusan will be provided with free rail travel. The prisoners are now staying at civilian homes in groups of two or three, disguised in civilian suits.

An Allied spokesman said that nine of the prisoners were recaptured. A burst of automatic fire from a nearby hillside during one escape bid killed one South Korean guard and wounded an American soldier.