means of war to impose on the Korean people the unilateral terms of the United Nations for the settlement of the Korean question, the United Nations Command now still persists in these terms. What other interpretation can there be than that it is bent on obstructing the peaceful settlement of the Korean question and maintaining and aggravating the tension in Korea and the Far East?

The Korean and Chinese Governments are of the opinion that the continued presence in South Korea of the forces of the United States and other countries taking part in the United Nations forces is at present the main obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the Korean question. So long as they do not withdraw from Korea, they will not escape the opposition and condemnation of the Korean people longing for peaceful unification and that of the peace loving peoples throughout the world.

The Korean and Chinese Governments hope that the Governments of the countries on the United Nations Command side would reconsider their rigid stand and take positive measures in conformity with the national aspirations of the Korean people and the desire of the people of the world for peace.

Resolution of the U.N. General Assembly Regarding the Korean Question, November 14, 19581

The General Assembly,

Having received the report of the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea,2

Reaffirming its resolutions 112 (II) of 14 November 1947, 195 (III) of 12 December 1948, 293 (IV) of 21 October 1949, 376 (V) of 7 October 1950, 811 (IX) of 11 December 1954, 910 A (X) of 29 November 1955, 1010 (XI) of 11 January 1957 and 1180 (XII) of 29 November 1957,

Noting the exchange of correspondence between the communist authorities and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on behalf of the Governments of countries which have contributed forces to the United Nations Command in Korea, in which these Governments expressed their wish to see a genuine settlement

1U.N. doc. A/RES/1264 (XIII), Nov. 17, 1958.

"Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirteenth Session, Supplement No. 18 (A/3865). [Footnote in original.]

The Chinese Government, in its own name and entrusted by the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, deems it necessary to make the following statement in regard to the Note delivered on December 4, 1958, by the British Government on behalf of the Governments of the countries on the United Nations Command side.

The Korean and Chinese Governments consider that from the British Note No. 129 not the slightest sincerity for a peaceful settlement of the Korean question can be seen on the part of the Governments of the countries on the United Nations Command side. The Note failed to give any satisfactory reply to the question of withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea raised in the previous Notes and statements of the Korean and Chinese Governments, and adopted an evasive attitude. The Governments of the countries on the United Nations Command side failed to take any measure to withdraw their forces from Korea.

It is especially necessary to point out that the United States has, in repeated violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement, introduced large quantities of new-type weapons including atomic weapons into South Korea and conducted military manoeuvres near the military demarcation line to aggravate the tension in Korea. Therefore, the Governments of the countries on the United Nations Command side, and particularly the United States Government, must be held responsible for the lack of a speedy peaceful solution to the Korean question and for the deterioration of the Korean situation and all its consequences.

It is even more absurd that the British Note should have forwarded the so-called United Nations resolution adopted under the manipulation of the United States.

As everybody knows, under the domination of the United States, the United Nations has been reduced to a belligerent in the Korean war and lost all competence and moral authority to deal fairly and reasonably with the Korean question. Therefore, any resolution on the Korean question adopted by the United Nations is unilateral and null and void. Any attempt to impose the will of one side on the other can only be interpreted as deliberate obstruction of the peaceful unification of Korea and an endeavour to create a pretext for the prolonged occupation of South Korea by United States armed forces.

The Korean and Chinese Governments hold that all foreign forces must be withdrawn from Korea, the Korean question should be settled by the Korean people themselves through consultations between North and South Korea without any outside interference, the desire of the Korean people for the peaceful unification of their fatherland

must be satisfied, and the countries concerned should undertake to ensure the peace of Korea and non-interference in Korea's internal affairs.

The Korean and Chinese Governments have made un-remitting efforts for the peaceful unification of Korea, and the withdrawal of all Chinese People's Volunteers from Korea was already completed in October 1958.

The Governments of the countries on the United Nations Command side should respect the will of the entire Korean people to unify their fatherland and make efforts accordingly to withdraw all their armed forces from South Korea at once.

Otherwise, they cannot escape the grave responsibility for obstructing the peaceful unification of Korea.

PEKING, March 4, 1959.

Statement by U.S. Delegate Walter S. Robertson Before the First Committee of the U.N. General Assembly, November 23, 19591

Once again, as for twelve years past, this Committee holds in its hands one of the most solemn responsibilities ever entrusted to the United Nations, the hope of unity, freedom, and a just peace for the 31,000,000 people of Korea.

This is a stubborn problem. The Korean people, now as always, ardently desire that their country should be restored to its historic unity and independence. Year after year the United Nations, by large and repeated majorities, has expressed the same unwavering desire on the part of the community of nations. Yet, through three tragic years of Communist aggression and war, and then through six years of fruitless negotiation, the problem has remained.

The root of the problem is simple. The communist authorities who have fastened an alien tyranny on North Korea refuse to relax their grip and refuse to consider unification of the country except on conditions which would once again lay all of Korea open to communist military attack. In pursuit of this policy they even deny the United Nations' right to concern itself with this matter.

We may be forgiven for wondering what the authors of this injustice are thinking. Perhaps they are hoping that the free nations

1 Press release 3309 of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, Nov. 23, 1959.

will forget about Korea. Perhaps they hope by the mere passage of time, the outlines of this problem will become fuzzy in our eyes, and the United Nations will begin to suffer from a sort of moral deafness in which "might" and "right" sound like the same word. They might then hope to overwhelm the Korean people and conquer all of Korea without the community of nations daring to intervene. Such a situation should give every small free nation in the world reason to fear for its life.

But if that is really the hope of the Communist leaders they should stop deceiving themselves. The United Nations has stood by Korea for twelve years and it is not going to give up now. The great majority of nations represented in this room are not held together by the iron discipline of an ideology—but are held together by something far more profound: our allegiance to the United Nations charter and to the world of decency for which it stands.

Now let us recall briefly the facts of the Korean question and, especially, the developments since the General Assembly last considered it a year ago.

On December 1, 1943, at Cairo, President Roosevelt, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and Prime Minister Churchill declared that Korea should become free and independent. This pledge was reaffirmed by the same three powers at Potsdam on July 26, 1945. The Soviet Union, upon its entry into the war against Japan, subscribed to the Potsdam Declaration, and reaffirmed this pledge at Moscow on December 27, 1945. At that time, in fact, the Foreign Ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union went a step further and agreed that a provisional Korean Democratic Government should be set up for all Korea with a view to the re-establishment of Korea as an independent state.

When this Moscow agreement was reached the Communists were already seeking to make permanent the division of Korea which had been intended purely for the purpose of accepting the surrender of Japanese troops in Korea. In September 1945, by agreement among the Allied Powers, the surrender of Japanese troops in Korea was accepted by United States military forces south of the 38th Parallel and by Soviet forces north of the 38th Parallel. Immediately after the surrender the American Military Command in Korea approached the Soviet Command in order to develop a joint policy for the administration of the whole country. The Soviet authorities refused to cooperate. Instead they set up their own occupation zone north of the 38th Parallel. Thus the Korean nation was cut in two.

Immediately and repeatedly the United States sought to persuade the Soviet Union to honor its agreement and end the arbitrary divi

sion of Korea. At the Conference of the Foreign Ministers in Moscow in December 1945, the Soviet Union agreed to set up, with the United States, a Joint Commission in Korea to work out the longrange political and economic problems, including the establishment of a provisional democratic structure for all of Korea. This Commission held 24 meetings beginning in March 1946-and accomplished nothing. A Joint Conference was also set up to deal with immediate and pressing problems. It first met in January 1946. In it the United States proposed a series of measures including the unification of key public utilities and uniform fiscal policies. The Soviet authorities rejected these proposals. Limited agreements were reached on exchange of mail, radio frequencies, and other minor fields, but even these proved impossible to carry out. The Joint Conference soon disbanded.

Despite these frustrations the United States, in the spirit of the Charter, refused to give up trying for a negotiated solution. Secretary of State George C. Marshall took the matter up directly with Foreign Minister Molotov. As a result the Joint Commission reassembled-but the deadlock continued.

Later our Acting Secretary of State, Robert A. Lovett, called for a Four-Power Conference to consider the implementation of the Moscow agreement. Again the Soviet Union refused.

Thus it became clear that bilateral talks could accomplish nothing further. At that point the United States, in accordance with the Charter, submitted the Korean question to the United Nations.

The General Assembly considered the matter at its second session in 1947. On November 14 it decided to establish the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea. It recommended that elections be held, on the basis of adult suffrage and secret ballot, in all of Korea.

The Nine-Nation United Nations Commission went to Korea. The Soviet authorities in the north refused to permit it to carry on its functions. The Commission then proceeded to hold elections in the southern part of Korea. These elections, held on May 10, 1948, covered an area inhabited by approximately two thirds of the Korean population. On August 23 a democratic constitution was promulgated in the Republic of Korea.

The General Assembly, in its resolution of December 12, 1948, certified that the Government thus formed in Korea was "based on elections which were a valid expression of the free will of the electorate of that part of Korea,” and added "that this is the only such government in Korea."

In September 1948, the Soviet authorities established a puppet regime in the northern part of Korea. I say "puppet" advisedly, because by its very origin this regime had not a shred of independence.