INCREASED INTENSITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26708, 1 March 1948, Page 7

INCREASED INTENSITY

RUSSIAN-LED ATTACKS IN SOUTH KOREA

POLICE AND RIOTERS KILLED N.Z.P.A.—Copyright Rec. 9 p.m. NEW YORK, Feb. 27. Communist-led attacks on police and public officials, which began on Wednesday, increased in intensity last night and this morning until by noon 37 persons had been killed—seven police, one bystander, and 29 rioters, says the, Seoul (Korea) correspondent of the New York Times. Twentyfive police stations were stormed simultaneously in the south-western province of Cholla Pukto at 4 a.m. to-day. Two police stations were burned to the ground, and a village official near Iri was beaten to death. The police 9a id that captured documents indicated that orders were received from North Korea telling the rioters to establish as soon as possible. Communist people’s committees in each village over which control had been secured. i

The Seoul correspondent of the Associated Press says that a Korean Liberal leader, Kimmo Kyu Sik, resigned to-day as head of the South Korean Legislature in protest against plans for the immediate “national” election approved by the United Nations Little Assembly. He declared that such an election would now result in the permanent partition of Korea, and expressed the opinion that a Korean Government should be formed by a joint conference of political leaders from both the American and Russian zones. Other members of the American-appointed interim legislature indicated that they might walk out in support of Kimmo. Dr Syngman Rhee, Rightist leader in South Korea, told an interviewer that he approved the election, and will co-operate "very happily.”