Korean Question Stays

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31248, 21 December 1966, Page 21

Korean Question Stays

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) NEW YORK, Dec. 20. The General Assembly turned back a last-minute effort by Communist nations yesterday to force the United Nations to drop the Korean question. It then overwhelmingly approved a United States resolution reaffirming the right of the United Nations to seek peaceful reunification of Korea. The General Assembly approved by 67 votes to 19,

with 32 abstentions, the United States resolution calling on the United Nations to continue its effort to establish “a unified, independent and democratic Korea. . .

The vote on the resolution came after the General Assembly turned down six amendments to the proposal, which were sponsored by 10 Communist countries. The main amendment called on the General Assembly “to remove the Korea question from the agenda and not to discuss it in the United Nations in the future.” The amendment was defeated, voting being 21 for, 66 against, with 30 abstentions. The other five were lost by similar margins. They pointed to the fact that the United Nations had not achieved re-

unification in 20 years of effort, and said the problem should be left to the Korean people themselves. The Communists tried to include with the amendments a North Korean proposal that

they and the South Koreans hold a conference on the Korean question. Each side would be allowed an equal number of participants from states “interested in the Korean question.” This proposal was defeated by 60 votes to 21, with 35 abstentions. The Communists brought the amendment in the General Assembly after their own resolution was overwhelmingly defeated in its main political committee. Their resolution called for the immediate withdrawal of United Nations troops from South Korea, and the dissolution of the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea.

The amendments were sponsored by Bulgaria, Byelorrussia, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Mongolia, Poland, Rumania, the Ukraine and the Soviet Union.