Report, United Nations General Assembly Seventh Session, First Committee, 514th Meeting

United Nations GENERAL FIRST COMMITTEE, 514th MEETING ASSEMBLY Wednesday, 29 October 1952, at 3 p.m. SEVENTH SESSION Official Records Headquarters, New York CONTENTS Page Reports of the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabil- itation of Korea (A/1881, A/2187, A/2228, A/C.1/725 and A/C.1/729) (continued) 31 Chairman: Mr. João Carlos MUNIZ (Brazil). Reports of the United Nations Commission for the mission, consisting of the military commands of the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea A/ USSR in North Korea and of the United States in 1881, A/2187, A/2228, A/C.1/725 and A/ South Korea, was to hold consultations with demo- C.1/729) (continued) cratic organizations and parties, with a view to setting [Item 16 a]* up a provisional government for a unified Korean State. Nevertheless, Mr. Acheson, with absolute disregard of 1. Mr. VYSHINSKY (Union of Soviet Socialist Re- the truth, had alleged that the Soviet Union had re- publics) pointed out that the consideration of the re- jected the United States proposals made in the Joint ports of the United Nations Commission for the Uni- Commission for administrative and political co-ordina- fication and Rehabilitation of Korea (A/1881 and A/ tion under the pretext that those proposals would im- 2187) had in fact turned into a debate on the problem pinge upon the absolute powers of the USSR in the which interested all partisans of peace and progress northern zone. It was needless to deny this allegation throughout the world, the problem of bringing to an because the Soviet Union had never made such declara- end the war imposed on the Korean people. At the tions. On the contrary the Soviet delegation in the beginning of the seventh session, the Polish delegation Commission had pointed to the necessity of providing had submitted a proposal on the Korean question as for an exchange of merchandise on an equal basis be- a whole and had requested, with the support of the tween North and South Korea. It had been prepared Soviet Union, that that proposal should be the first to meet the industrial needs of South Korea, provided item on the agenda (510th meeting). The opposition that, in exchange, North Korea received rice to feed of the United States and of the other signatories of the the workers and spare parts needed for the factories. North Atlantic Treaty had brought about the failure The United States had brought about the failure of of that attempt. It was therefore paradoxical that after that plan, in the hope of creating a famine in the North. the United States delegation had ensured that the re- With regard to political and administrative matters, the ports of the United Nations Commission for the Uni- Byrnes plan, far from providing for the establishment fication and Rehabilitation of Korea should be exam- of a national and democratic Korean government, had ined forthwith, Mr. Acheson, in his first speech on 24 merely provided for an executive council consisting of October (512th meeting), should have dealt with the the representatives of the four Powers and having Korean question as a whole and not with the Commis- executive, legislative and judiciary powers, thus dis- sion's reports, although those reports could not be dealt regarding the Moscow Agreement, which formally with apart from the problem of war and peace in recognized the necessity of a single, democratic pro- Korea. visional government. Mr. Acheson had therefore again 2. Nevertheless, Mr. Acheson lacked the respect for distorted the facts when he had tried to reduce the historical truth which was essential to anyone claiming question to the difference of interpretation of the word to give a survey of such a vast question; his account "democratic" in connexion with the consultation of was a complete distortion of the events that had in Korean political organizations. The United States had fact taken place since the Cairo and Moscow confer- wanted consultations to be held with numerically small ences. groups which represented only the reactionary circles and the Syngman Rhee faction, to the exclusion of 3. At the Moscow conference an important decision organizations such as the Confederation of Labour and was taken to assist in the creation of a provisional Pan-Korean Youth, each of which had over a million Korean democratic government. For this purpose a members, the Pan-Korean Peasant Association and the Joint Commission was established. The Joint Com- National Revolutionary Party. Mr. Acheson had stated Indicates the item number on the agenda of the General that the Soviet Union had objected to the consultation Assembly. of parties hostile to the establishment of a trusteeship 31 A/C.1/SR.514