Army Ordered To Stay Neutral

Press, Volume C, Issue 29516, 18 May 1961, Page 15

Army Ordered To Stay Neutral

(W Z Press Association—C’opt/ngnti

NEW YORK, May 17.

The commander of the Republic of Korea’s First Army, which contains most of South Korea’s combat units, today ordered his men to remain neutral in the military coup which took over the Government, United Press International reported from Seoul.

The order, by LieutenantGeneral Lee Han Lim, was regarded as a severe setback to efforts by the United States commander of the United Nations forces in Korea, General Carter Magruder, to check the military junta’s authority, U.P.I. said. General Magruder called upon Korean military leaders yesterday to return control of the Government to the Prime Minister, Mr John Chang, who now is in hiding General Magruder, said that there was no great amount of support for the military committee, the British United Press reported. A senior official at the United States Embassy in Seoul told a press conference yesterday that the United States Government recognised Dr. Chang’s Government as the only lawful, legal, and constitutional Government of the Republic of Korea. Reuter reported.

The official said the Embassy and the United Nations Command regarded the Revolutionary Council led by General Chang as an "unauthorised military body working in contravention of the United Nations Command.” A United Nations Command statement issued last night in Seoul said: “Information available to the command indicated that following a probe of the situation with respect to the uprising, there appeared to be only about 3600 revolutionary troops in Seoul. All of them came from units of the Army Reserve. “Troops of the front line as well as the Air Force and Navy remain steadfast in their positions and continue to assure the defence of the Republic.

“No great amount of public support for the uprising has become apparent. Other cities in Korea remain relatively quiet.” This was the first official statement indicating that the regular Army, Air Force and Navy had not joined the revolutionary forces. The South Korean Army consists of about 500,000 troops. Officials in Washington were watching events in Korea with extreme concern, but had declined to issue any statement beyond saying that the situation was “unclear,” the Associated Press reported. President Kennedy, now in Canada, was keening in close touch with the State Department on events in Korea. Before he left yesterday he called Mr Walter P. McConaughy, a former United States Ambassador to Korea and now Assistant Secretary of State for the Far East, to the White House for consultations.

The American general who was United Nations Commander during the Korean Army War described the South Korean Army yesterday as representative of the people and as a staunch ally General James Van Fleet, now retired, said in a statement on the South Korean coup: “I believe the Korean Army is representative of the people and anti-Communist. I’m for anybody that’s against the Communists. “We have no stauncher ally than the Korean Army. They are 100 per cent, behind the United States. I believe in the Republic of Korea Army It is one of the world’s most able fighting organisations and loyal to the people of Korea.”