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{
    "localId": "225247905",
    "label": "Central Intelligence Group, Office of Reports and Estimates Report, Number 5/1, The Situation in Korea",
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    "id": "225247905",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Central Intelligence Group, Office of Reports and Estimates Report, Number 5/1, The Situation in Korea",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/225247905",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 3,
            "logicalDate": "1947-01-03",
            "month": 1,
            "year": 1947
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{
    "seq": 7,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875467/875467-03-07.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "as the report of riots in Pyongyang last June, reach the US Zone. Both\nAmbassador Pauley and Minister Bunce have remarked on the friendliness\nof the North Koreans toward Americans and their apparent hostility to-\nward the Soviets. The Soviet forces in North Korea are living off the\ncountry and antagonizing the people. According to Minister Bunce, the\nSoviet authorities consider the Red Army a political liability in Korea\nand would gladly be rid of it. The alleged unpopularity of the Soviet\nregime, however, cannot be entirely ascribed to the misconduct of its\ntroops. Excessive regimentation may also have produced a certain an-\ntagonism among the Koreans. For example, the single-party system of\npolitics is duplicated in the organization of labor. Union membership\nis compulsory in North Korea, and every union is incorporated in the\nAll Korea Labor Union under the direction of the Communist Party. Al-\nthough the eight-hour day has been guaranteed by law in the Soviet Zone,\nunion members were recently required to contribute an extra hour of work\neach day to build up a fund for South Korean strikers.\nDiscontent probably exists in North Korea, as in other areas\nof Soviet control. At present, however, the Soviet regime north of the\n38th parallel appears more firmly established than ever. The Moscow\npress has boasted that, in the elections of 3 November establishing\npermanent people's committees, 99.6% of the registered voters went to\nthe polls in a great demonstration of loyalty to the existing govern-\nment. In accordance with Soviet practice, the voters were not given\nthe embarrassment of a choice, since all candidates figured on a single\nslate. The Soviets regard the results as a popular mandate to carry on\ntheir present system of government in North Korea.\nSituation in South Korea\nGeneral. While Soviet discipline reigns north of the 38th\nparallel, South Korea is in a state of unrest. Factionalism and party\nstrife have recently culminated in a series of strikes and riots threat-\nening the security of the Military Government and calling for armed in-\ntervention by US troops. The strike of railroad workers and printers\nat the end of September led to an outbreak of violence centering in the\nsoutheastern provinces of Kyongsang Pukto and Kyongsang Namdo. Accord-\ning to official estimates, approximately 40 policemen and 40 rioters\nwere killed in street fighting in the Taegu and Pusan areas at the be-\nginning of October. Property losses totalled millions of yen, while\narrests numbered 3,782. US troops were occasionally forced to fire\ninto the mobs during the course of these disturbances. Quiet was tem-\nporarily restored toward the middle of October, as the strikers gradu-\nally returned to work. A recrudescence of unrest set in, however, to-\nward the end of the month, while the scene shifted from the southeast\nto the southwest and to the area about Seoul. An uprising in the cap-\nital, scheduled for 22 October, was prevented by timely action on the\npart of the Military Government. The end of these disorders is not yet\n- 6 -"
}