Statement of Korean Prisoners of War Situation

Statement of Korean PW Situation given Peter Camp fell Canadian Embassy, by Mr. Johnson 5/29/52 May 29, 1952 1. In order to provide the Communists with an estimate of the number of POWs held by the UNC available for repatriation, which the Communists insisted upon as a basis for agreement, the UNC made it clear it would have to conduct a poll of POWs. With Communist acquiescence, the UNC in fact sought to poll all POWs. In the time available (since the Communists kept pressing for an early estimate) the UNC screened all the POWs who would submit to the screening, which includes the major portion of all POWs held by the UNC. In the screening procedure, if at any time the POW expressed a decision to accept repatriation, the questions ceased. In arriving at the estimate given to the Communists (1.0. 70,000), the UNC included all those who in the screening persuaded the UNC they would resist repatriation. Also included in the estimate were a substantial majority of those POWs in compounds which resisted screening. Since these compounds consisted principally of North Korean POWs and were Communist-controlled, the UNC assumed for the purposes of the estimate that the substantial majority would not resist repatriation to the Communists. In arriving at the figure of 70,000, the UNC of course desired to make the highest possible estimate in order to make the results more palatable to the Communists; at the same time the UNC had to be careful not to give the Communists an estimate which would later prove greater than in fact indicated to the Communists. No reason has yet appeared to doubt the accuracy of the results. 2. The estimate of 70,000 POWa which could be repatriated without the use of force was given to the Communists on April 19, 1952. As. of that date, the UNC had screened 106,376 POWS and civilian internees on Kojo-Do, of which 31,244 were willing to return to Communist oustody and 75,132 indicated they would violently resist repatriation, and 6,512 at Pusan, of which 4,774 desired to be repatriated to the Communists, and 1,738 violently opposed repatriation. 3. Since this time, as more compounds came under complete UNC control and submitted to screening, the UNC has continued the screening process, using the same procedures as in the first screening. As of May 16. the UNC had 39,485 screened personnel to return to Commist control, and there were still 43,803 unscreened personnel at Koje-Do, in addition to 3,500 unscreened persons at Pusan. A total of 123,698 personnel have now been screened by the UNC. 4. Finally, pending the possibility of real screening, the UNC has broadcast the following to all unscreened compounds: "On the strength of previous statements of compound leaders, the UNG assumes that all innates of blank compound desire to return 78