KOREAN PEACE TALKS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27224, 16 December 1953, Page 11

KOREAN PEACE TALKS

U.N. Rejects Call For Resumption

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 1 p.m.) SEOUL, Dec. 15. Mr Arthur Dean, the American envoy, today rejected a Communist proposal to resume negotiations tomorrow for arranging the Korean peace conference. Mr Dean said the Communists, in a letter proposing the resumption, rePe at ed the charge of perfidy against the United States Government which caused him to break off the negotiations last Saturday. The letter from the Communists yesterday said: “We hold that to say that the United States is perfidious is completely consistent with the facts a na that there is no insult to speak of.” (

Mr Dean, who will return to Washington today, said he had replied to the reiterated chargd and called the Communist statements completely false.

Peking Radio yesterday called for the resumption of the talks and said Mr Dean “insolently and provocatively slandered the North Koreans and Chinese as agents of the Soviet Union,” and added: “Clearly the wrecking of the discussions between the two sides by the United Nations representative was a long-premeditated act. If the United States has the slightest regard for the censure of peace-loving people, it should immediately instruct its representative to return to the Panmunjon conference room to resume the discussions. The North Korean and Chinese side stands for the continuance of the discussions.”

The North Korean and Chinese delegates yesterday lodged a protest against Mr Dean. The New China News Agency, in reporting this, said that the Communist delegates alleged that Mr Dean, “by creating a fraudulent pretext, unilaterally declared an indefinite recess and arrogantly withdrew from the conference room/ with the result that the discussions between the two sides are broken off.” The delegates’ statement added: “The Korean and Chinese side considers that this unjustified action on the part of the representative of the United States Government is entirely aimed at wrecking the discussions between the two sides and rejecting the negotiations.

Clearing this wrecking of the discussions by the United States Government representative was a long-pre-meditated act. In view of these solid facts we consider that to call the United States perfidious, corresponds perfectly to the truth and constitutes no insult at all.” British View The British Foreign Office said today that it had every confidence in Mr Dean. A spokesman said: “We are quite certain Mr Dean did not break off the talks without good reason.” A State Department spokesman said that Mr Dean had left the Panmunjon talks “when it became apparent that the Communist side did not wish to negotiate for a Korean political conference.”

He told a press conference that the State Department regarded the talks as “suspended, not terminated.”

He said it seemed to Mr Dean tha all the reasonableness was on his side and there was no evidence of it oi the other side.

The spokesman added: “There seemed to be no purpose in continuing the talks while the Communists remained in that state of mind.”

The spokesman said he did not know if Mi* Dean, who has been authorised to return to Washington for consultations, would return to Korea later.

Mr Dean’s deputy, Mr Kenneth Young, was remaining in Korea, and would be available “if and when the talks are resumed.”