SOUTH KOREAN ULTIMATUM

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27736, 13 August 1955, Page 7

SOUTH KOREAN ULTIMATUM

Neutral Nations Reject Demand

(N.Z. J*r«sc Atsociation— -Copyright)

(Rec. 1130 pan.) PANMUNJON, August 12. The Neutral Nations Inspection Commission has rejected South Korea’s ultimatum that its teams must leave South Korea by midnight tomorrow. The decision to reject South Korea’s ultimatum was made at a meeting of the commission last Wednesday. AU four members of the commission—Sweden, Switzerland, Poland and Czechoslovakia—agreed to reject the demand. The United Nations Command told the Communists at a meeting of the Joint Military Armistice Commission later that it would guarantee the safety of the Neutral Nations Commission members from South Korean demonstrations. Major-General Harlan Parks, the senior United Nations Command delegate, told a press conference that he had assured the Communists that “if necessary the United Nations will, to the limit of its ability, establish a military guard to ensure that the armistice terms are observed by South Korea.”

General Parks reminded the Communists, who today charged that the demonstrations constituted "a grave violation” of the armistice terms, that the United Nations Command had no control over the "expression of opinion by Korean civilians.” He also rejected a Communist draft letter to be sent to the. Neutral Nations Commission promising to ensure the safety and continued functions of the commission. The Communists answered by reacting a draft submitted by- General Parks. Finally, both sides agreed to send minutes of today’s meeting to the commission, as proposed by the United Nations Command. Last night a South Korean Government spokesman asked the United States to withdraw her troops from the Neutral’ Nations Commission’s compounds "for the immediate relaxation of tension.” The spokesman, Mr Hong Kee Karl, said conflicts between the troops and South Korean demonstrators early this week “were all due to the outrageous use of weapons by United States military forces. This Government is capable of giving ; the commission members proper protection and we will give our assurance that there will be no violence shown them.” General Choy Duk Shin, commander of the South Korean First Army Corps, said today that he believed “all the free nations of the world will help us unify our country.” He said South Korea was determined to have the Neutral Nations Commission out of the country. The Swedish and Swiss representatives were “an right," he said, but "others are Communist sympathisers.’”