N.Z. Defends South Korea In United Nations

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31522, 9 November 1967, Page 13

N.Z. Defends South Korea In United Nations

<*.Z P A-Reuter — Copyright/ NEW YORK. Nov. 7. The New Zealand Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Mr Charles Craw, said yesterday that no amount of talk about a so-called

puppet regime in South Korea could hide its achievements domestically and internally.

Speaking tn the Main Political Committee, he said that South Korea was among the most dynamic of the developing countries and comparisons were increasingly disad-

vantageous to the North Koreans.

“Are we to regard their violations of the armistice as their reaction to the remarkable progress being made in the Republic of Korea? or are they the prelude to aggression on a larger scale?” he asked. Whatever the motives, the increasing number of attacks by North Korean saboteurs must cause concern, Mr Craw said.

What was the purpose behind Communist demands for the dissolution of the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea? “Are they proposing that the United Nations should stand aside while they have anothe. try at achieving their aims by violence?”

There was no better argument for the commission’s continued existence than the resurgence of aggression and provocation from the North, he said.

The harsh language used about South Korea “by the North Koreans and those who speak for them in this committee” did nothing to establish the credibility of these statements, the New Zealand delegate said. The Communists might rail against the Government in Seoul, but the elections there looked distinctly more like democracy than the unanimous appointment of one candidate in the North.

Earlier, South Korea rejected Communist charges at the United Nations that it was a puppet regime manipulated hy the United States Defence Department and linked in an aggressive military alliance with Japan. The Foreign Minister, Mr Kyu Hah Choi, speaking in the Main Political Committee, said such “stereotyped and paranoic attacks” on his country did little to aid its reunification.

Speaking in a right of reply, the South Korean Minister asked: “What have we done to the Governments of Moscow, Prague, Budapest and Warsaw and certain other countries here which could justify such abuse?” The sole purpose of South Korea’s 1965 treaty with Japan was to normalise relations between two neighbour-

ing countries and contained “not a single word about any present or future military alliance.”

Allegations that his Government was subservient to Washington were completely unfounded, the Foreign Minister said. “I emphatically state that the status of the American Embassy in Seoul is neither higher nor lower than any other.” The sole object of the 30 million people of South Korea was to live in peace, prosperity and freedom, Mr Choi said. Yet even while the Korean question was being debated at United Nations headquarters. North Korean saboteurs were committing criminal acts of violence against South Korean civilians.

Only last Friday, a North Korean force of 11 warships had attacked a South Korean fishing fleet seven miles off the coast and about two miles south of the demilitarised zone.

In a 30-minute burst of fire from automatic weapons, one fisherman was seriously hurt and then 62 men kidnapped with their vessels. “Such Communist attacks on and kidnapping of our fishermen are almost weekly occurrences,” the Foreign Minister said. “This time it took place at the very moment the Korean question is being discussed here. Would this not be an affront and an open challenge to the authority of the United Nations.” North Korea refused to participate in joint observer teams, Mr Choi said. It talked of moves towards reunification, such as cultural and economic exchanges. “But actions speak louder than words,” the Foreign Minister said. South Korea was an open, free society, with a gay, prosperous and bustling capital. It desired only peace, cooperated with the United Nations in all sincerity and could only feel deep regret and indignation at the “falsifications, fabrications and untruths” which had been spoken by Communist and some other delegates during the present debate.

Korean forces were sent to Vietnam at the express request of the Government in Saigon, Mr Choi said.