JOHNSON BOUND FOR HONOLULU TALKS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31655, 16 April 1968, Page 15

JOHNSON BOUND FOR HONOLULU TALKS

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) AUSTIN (Texas), April 15. President Johnson flies to Honolulu today for what are described simply as bilateral talks with President Chung Hee Park of South Korea.

But doubtless Mr Johnson is prepared to discuss the broader military-political picture resulting from his peace initiatives on Vietnam. President Park, whose nation is contributing more troops to Vietnam—about 50,000 men—than any of America’s other allies outside South Vietnam, naturally has a vital stake in any peace talk's. The White House, announcing the meeting with President Park, which is scheduled for Wednesday, emphasised that Mr Johnson had wanted to see the South Korean leader ever since his special envoy, the former Deputy Defence Secretary, Mr Cyrus Vance, returned from a mission to Seoul following the seizure of the United States intelligence ship Pueblo on January 23. Postponed The Johnson-Park conference was originally scheduled for the week-end of April 6, but the assassination of the Negro civil rights leader. Dr Martin Luther King, and the subsequent riots in American cities caused Mr Johnson to postpone his flight to Honolulu. Mr Vance’s mission centred on America’s private dealings with the Pyongyang regime for the release of the Pueblo and its 81 surviving crew members. Seoul wanted the United States to show equal concern for increased North Korean

infiltration into South Korea, and the abortive assassination attempt on the life of President Park. The United States did subsequently raise these matters at a session of the Korean Mixed Armistice Commission in Panmunjom, with Seoul representatives present. President Johnson also took other steps to reassure the South Koreans, including a request to Congress for an additional SUSIOOm in military assistance to strengthen Seoul’s armed forces. Speculation Since the Pueblo incident, however, Vietnam has dwarfed North-South Korean problems in Washington, and the latest United States peace initiative, including a partial bombing halt, has raised speculation in some Asian capitals that Washington might be preparing to withdraw from South-East Asia or substantially reduce its military presence there. Such a development might encourage Pyongyang to military adventures against South Korea, according to this line of speculation. But Mr Johnson has attempted to make the point, by refusing to rush into an agreement on the site of preliminary peace talks with Hanoi, that he was not seeking a quick exit from Vietnam. Repeated administration statements have stressed that a lesser United States military presence in South-East Asia could only follow a settlement which promised reasonable stability in the area. And if President Park holds any fears about the United States determination to preserve

peace in Asia, Mr Johnson will undoubtedly reassure him on this point While in Hawaii, Mr Johnson will also confer with the Commander of United States Forces in the Pacific (Admiral Ulysses Grant Sharp). Ambusbed From Seoul today It is reported that four United Nations Command soldiers were killed and two American soldiers wounded last night when their truck was ambushed by North Korean Communists about 800 yards south of the Panmunjon armistice conference area. The ambush occurred while a truck from the 2nd United States infantry division was making a routine trip from the United Nations Command advance camp to Panmunjon. The Communist ambush was discovered by a second United Nations Command vehicle carrying an American sergeant and two other men about 10 minutes after the attack. They had heard about 200 rounds of automatic weapons fire and two explosions.