HUGE SOVIET ARMS SUPPLIES ON EVE OF INVASION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23316, 27 July 1950, Page 7

HUGE SOVIET ARMS SUPPLIES ON EVE OF INVASION

TOKYO, July 25.

North Korean prisoners interrogated at the eighth United States Army headquarters in Korea today said 20,000 Korean veterans of the Chinese Communist Army were used for the invasion of South Korea.

The prisoners also said:— 1. Russia one month before the attack supplied the North Korean Army with huge quantities of equipment, including tanks.

2. Russian advisers were with the North Korean units.

3. Chinese Communists had told Korean veterans that south Korea, Formosa and Hainan all would fall at the same time (Hainan was captured lata in April. The United States Seventh Fleet is protecting Formosa.) ] Some of the prisoners were only 1® ] years of age. i An emaciated, unshaven North ; Korean prisoner told his American cap- j tors that Russian officers with the Korean armies lead a life of luxury, in striking contrast to that of the Korean ■ troops, says Reuter’s correspondent with the United States forces.

The prisoner said North Korean troops were expected to live off tire country, the army providing only grain as food.

The prisoner said he objected most to the Russian officers with the Koreans preaching equality, but not practising it. The Russians, he added, stayed a comfortable distance from the fighting lines.