"The US Imperialists Started The Korean War"
book authored by Candidate Academician Ho Jong Ho, Doctors Kang Sok Hui and Pak Thae Ho,
published by Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, Korea.
2nd edition, 1993
===*===*===
On the Second Impression of This Book -More than 40 years have elapsed since the provocation of the Korean war by the US imperialists.
The war inflicted intolerable misfortune and suffering on the Korean people. Their peaceful labour was suspended and the building of a new Korea, which was progressing with dynamic force, was interrupted.
The historians of our country have published many books exposing the true nature of the US imperialists as the provokers of the war and giving detailed accounts of their preparations to start it.
The matter of who started the Korean war was revealed by progressive scholars and reporters in the United States during the war and afterwards in Japan and other countries the world over.
Nevertheless, the US imperialists were and are desperate to avoid responsibility for the outbreak of the war. As for the grounds for their assertion they refer to the fact that as soon as the war broke out the Korean People’s Army rushed south at a remarkable speed. In addition they cite some rigged up incidents, what they call secret talks and parleys. But the first ground is not a matter relating to the outbreak of the war but one of strategic superiority. As for the second ground, it is mere wild talk, with no documentary evidence at all to support it.
In consideration of this, our editorial board has decided to reprint the book The US Imperialists Started the Korean War that was first published in 1977.
This reissue contains some new data.
April 1993
The Editorial Board
===*===*===
CONTENTS
Foreword.....................................................................................1
1. US Imperialism’s Policy of World Domination after World
War II, Its Occupation of South Korea and Enforcement of “Military Government”..............................................………….4
1) US Imperialism’s Policy of World Domination and Korea…..…4
US Imperialism’s Policy of World Domination.......……………….4
US Imperialism’s Sinister Design to Turn Korea into Its Outpost for
World Domination…………….……………………………………9
The Accursed 38th Parallel.....................................……………….13
2) Occupation of South Korea by the US Imperialists and Their
Establishment of a Colonial Military Rule ................................18
Occupation of South Korea by the US Imperialist Aggressor Army........18
Colonial Enslavement and Military Base Policies of the “US
Military Government” ..........................................…………………22
3) Concoction of the Puppet Government in South Korea..............35
4) Consolidation of the Revolutionary, Democratic Base in the
Northern Half of the Country; Struggle of the Korean People for
the Independent, Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.......48
2. Undisguised Preparation for an Aggressive “March North” War.......58
1) Economic Crisis in the United States.............................................58
2) Puppet Army Organized, Its Equipment Improved.....................64
“ROK Army” Organized..............................................................54
Seizure of Command of Puppet Army by US Imperialism, Mode-
rnization of Equipment of “ROK Army”.....................................72
3) Frantic Outcry for a “Northward Expedition”- Prelude to War...80
4) Program for the “Northward Expedition” Mapped Out................85
5) “Small War” along the 38th Parallel................................................94
(1) Armed Intrusions into the Area of Pyoksong County,
Hwanghae Province.....................................................................98
(2) Armed Intrusions into Yangyang Area, Kangwon Province........99
(3) Armed Intrusions into the Area of Mt. Songak...........................100
(4) Armed Intrusions into the Area of Mt. Unpha............................101
(5) Armed Intrusions into the Territory North of the 38th Parallel
from the Sea................................................................................102
(6) Murder, Terrorism and Destruction by South Korean “Special
Units” Aimed at “Stirring Up Public Sentiment”..... .................103
6) Reframed Plan for War Provocation...............................................108
7) Large-scale “Purge” Campaign for “Stabilization of the Rear”..128
Fascistization of South Korean Society............................................125
Campaigns for “Purge in the Rear” and “Purge in the Army”.........128
8) War Preparations in the US Mainland and Japan.........................136
War Preparations in the Mainland of the United States....................137
War Preparations in Japan................................................................142
The Abortive Plot for the Formation of the “Pacific Alliance”
and MacArthur’s “Eleven-Point War Instruction”...........................150
3. Provocation of the Korean War by US Imperialism.................................152
Silence before the Storm...................................................................157
Pressing Situation That Brooks No Further Duration.......................160
Four-Bigwigs Talk in Tokyo and Dulles' Tour of South Korea.......166
The 38th Parallel on the Eve of June 25...........................................173
Start of War by US Imperialism, All-out Armed Intervention
by US Ground, Naval and Air Forces...............................................178
4. US Imperialism’s Thrice-cursed Atrocities against Korean People.........197
1) Atrocity of Mass Murder Committed by US Imperialism
against the Korean People.................................................................197
2) US Imperialism’s “Scorched-Earth” and “Strangulation” Operations...208
“Scorched-Earth” Operations............................................................208
“Strangulation” Operations...............................................................213
3) US Imperialism’s Germ Warfare.......... ..........................................219
5. US Imperialists’ Serious Military, Political and Moral Defeats
in the Korean War................................................................................229
1) US Imperialists’ Crushing Military Defeat in the Korean War.......229
2) The Politico-Moral Defeat of US Imperialism in the Korean War..235
Conclusion......................................................................................................241
===*===*===
Foreword
Many years have already elapsed since the provocation of the Korean war by the US imperialists.
Mankind keeps the memory of this war that caused inestimable losses in manpower and material values to the Korean people and reduced to ashes the brilliant national culture they had built up in a corner of the Eastern Hemisphere by their diligent efforts and extraordinary talents through an historical period of several thousand years.
The US imperialists set their huge propaganda machines in motion and strove to lay the blame for the war on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and no small number of the world public were, in fact, misled by their false propaganda.
But, this tampering with history was short-lived, and the truth could not be withheld indefinitely.
As the days went by, the true colours of the criminal were exposed all the more clearly, and the cause of the Korean war and the objective of its provokers, too, became apparent.
In less than one year after the outbreak of the war, progressive-minded foreigners had already found inconsistencies in the US government's propaganda and begun to suspect it. In spite of unfavourable conditions prevailing at that time, they strove to clear up the truth through an unbiased comparison and analysis of the data and laid bare the true colours of the aggressors by their incisive pens. Among them were well-known American and Japanese journalists and scholars. Today, as a considerable amount of data has been dug up and a deep study made, it has been brought into bolder relief, as an unshakable fact, that the Korean war was ignited by none other than the US imperialists.
Moreover, in substantiating the actual igniter of the war, scholars and journalists at home and abroad drew all their arguments from indisputable graphic materials such as official statements and secret documents of the US ruling circles and Syngman Rhee clique and well-grounded news reports of those days.
As is known, one of the most important outcomes of the Second World War was the aggravation of the general crisis of capitalism due to the emergence of many socialist countries in the world. US imperialism, the ringleader of world imperialism, schemed to deliver its allies from the general crisis of the capitalist world through the realization of its “world leadership”.
US imperialism’s scheme for world domination inevitably signified a declaration of war against peace and democracy, national independence and socialism, and this declaration was put into practice by the “Truman doctrine”. In line with the “Truman doctrine” US imperialism was to use force, at any time and in any place in the world, against those countries and nations that obstructed the path to the “world leadership of the United States”.
Added to this was another factor which compelled the US billionaires to tie the policy-makers of their government to the wheel of war. It was the economic crisis that threw the US into considerable panic from the end of 1948 to 1949. As Van Fleet confessed, in order to tide over the economic crisis US imperialism had to enjoy a “blessing” of wartime profits and in this it needed, among others, Korea. This was the politico-economic factor that contributed to impelling US imperialism to the provocation of a war in 1949-1950. All the unusual movements of US President Truman, Secretary of State Acheson, Secretary of Defence Johnson, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley, MacArthur who assumed the leading role in the Korean war, and Syngman Rhee were nothing more than a puppet show staged under that necessity.
Why, then, did they select Korea as a war theatre, the first “testing ground” for the US policy of world domination? This question, too, can be correctly solved only when its examination is based on the law-governed process of historical development. They chose Korea because, as they themselves said, at that time Korea was a field of a life-and-death battle between socialism and imperialism and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was exerting an ever-increasing influence on hundreds of millions of people in the world who were still under the yoke of imperialism. The reader will be provided with the details in this book.
In short, we have tried to expose the actual state of things in the acts of the war criminals through substantial documentary records of the enemy’s side, free from conjecture, surmise or fabrication, and, on this basis, condemned US imperialism as the igniter of the Korean war.
Today when more than twenty years have passed since the Korean war ended in shameful defeat on the part of its provokers, the US imperialist ruling circles are scheming as ever to unleash another war on the Korean peninsula by
2
the same method in order to gratify their deep-rooted desire to swallow up the whole of Korea. In the past they put up a “communist menace” as the pretext of the “north-bound expedition” and today they clamour about a “threat to southward invasion” to justify the northward invasion. They scheme to realize the old dream of “unification by prevailing over communism” under the plea of a “threat to southward invasion.” Ford, Kissinger and Schlezinger as the worthy successors to Truman, Dulles and MacArthur are resorting to atomic blackmail in an attempt to scare someone. The present situation reminds one of the eve of the Korean war when US imperialism made frenzied attempts to find a pretext for declaring the victim guilty through all sorts of provocations.
In this sense, this book, The US Imperialists Started the Korean War, will play its part in disclosing the crimes committed by US imperialism and repudiating the vicious sophistry of its defenders.
April 1977
Author
3
1. US Imperialism’s Policy of World Domination after World War II, Its Occupation of South Korea and Enforcement of “Military Government”
1) US Imperialism’s Policy of World Domination and Korea
US Imperialism’s Policy of World Domination
The war policy followed by the US imperialists since World War II was connected with their policy of world domination. The aggressive war unleashed by them in Korea was the first adventure of the US ruling circles to carry out their world domination scheme. Therefore, in order to discover the truth of the Korean war, it is necessary, first of all, to explain their policy of world domination.
World War II resulted in the collapse of fascist Germany and Italy, the defeat of Japanese imperialism in the Orient and the great victory of the world anti-fascist democratic forces.
This victory brought about a radical change in the postwar balance of the world’s political forces.
In a word, it rapidly altered the balance in such a way that the imperialist forces were weakened and the democratic forces became decidedly predominant.
Socialism grew beyond the bounds of a single country to expand and develop on a worldwide scale. The anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist struggle of the Asian, African and Latin-American peoples who had been oppressed and plundered by imperialism for several centuries was gaining momentum. Along with the revolutionary struggle of the international working class for socialism, it became a great revolutionary force of our times.
In contrast, the imperialist camp as a whole deteriorated and the general
4
crisis of capitalism grew still worse.
The postwar developments struck great consternation into the hearts of the US imperialists.
They made desperate efforts to establish their supremacy over the world and tide over the general crisis of capitalism by intensifying the offensive against the ever-growing forces of socialism and national liberation.
US imperialism’s postwar policy of world domination was the outcome of circumstances under which modern imperialism was reorganized with US imperialism as the leader, and the centre of international reaction shifted to the US.
Through World War II the imperialist camp weakened in general, with the exception of US imperialism which fattened economically and militarily.
When other countries were fighting the bloody war, US imperialism reaped an enormous wartime surplus profit from the supply of large-scale military orders, without suffering any bombing damage in the US mainland. Military orders placed with the US monopolistic financial interests from 1940 to September 1944 reached a colossal amount worth 175 billion dollars, and during the seven years from 1939 to 1945 their gross net profit ran into some 60 billion dollars.
As of December 31, 1945, the credit US imperialism extended, through lend-lease, to its allies alone reached 41, 751 million dollars.*!
In the course of the war, US monopoly capital was able to enhance its industry with new equipment worth 26 billion dollars, and as a result, US industrial productivity showed a sharp increase of over 40 per cent since 1939.*2
*1. Henri Claude, Historical Analysis of US Imperialism, Tokyo, pp. 152-55. *2 .Past and Present of the USA, Pyongyang, p. 118.
The United States, fattening on the enormous profits gained through the wartime munitions production and lend-lease, came to control two-thirds of the industrial output of the capitalist world to become the greatest economic Power in the imperialist camp.
World War II also made US imperialism the strongest in the imperialist camp militarily.
Until 1939, among the six big capitalist Powers (the US, England, Germany, Italy, Japan and France), the US had not such a large military
5
force. Its army ranked 17th in the capitalist world and its navy was next to that of England. However, since it suffered the smallest military losses among its allies and could devote itself to munitions production in the Second World War, it surpassed other capitalist countries in all services and arms.
Meanwhile, many big and small countries of the capitalist world suffered serious damages in the war, became enfeebled and ran into huge debts, with the result that they had to rely on the US, begging for its “aid.”
In particular, as the forces of socialism and national liberation grew in scope and strength and the general crisis of capitalism worsened after World War II, there was a pronounced tendency among these countries to hamper the growth of socialism and the national-liberation movements and to maintain the capitalist world by relying on the economic and military strength of US imperialism which had emerged into the strongest in the capitalist world.
Taking advantage of this change brought about in the balance of forces on the international arena, US imperialism became the leader of the capitalist countries of the world and the imperialist system was reorganized with US imperialism as the chieftain.
US imperialism, now as the chieftain of modern imperialism and the ringleader of world reaction, openly advocated “world domination” and defined a policy for world conquest as the basic foreign policy of the US. Thus, it embarked upon an all-out reactionary offensive.
The main contents of the US imperialism’s policy of world conquest are to establish a system for its worldwide domination by checking the growth of the forces of socialism and national liberation, disrupting and undermining them from within and without to destroy them, protecting and encouraging reactionary forces, suppressing and liquidating democratic forces in all parts of the world, and dominating and subjugating all the capitalist and satellite countries.
The US imperialism’s vicious policy of world domination was based on the insatiable avarice of the US billionaires who had fattened to the utmost. The policy, therefore, reflected not only its attempt to tide over the general crisis of capitalism but also the expansionist ambition of the US monopoly capitalists who wanted to turn the whole world into their commodity market, source of raw materials and a ground for their capital investment.
The US imperialists’ “world supremacy” was made a policy by US President Truman’s “union message” to the Congress.
6
In this “message” dated December 19, 1945, he declared: “We must realize that the victory we gained has imposed on the American people a heavy responsibility of leading the world in future, whether they want it or not.”*1
This “message” of Truman was a virtual announcement at home and abroad of the fact that the policy of world domination had become the general programme of the postwar foreign policy of the US government.
Moreover, in his speech made at Fort Benning on January 10, 1950, he said: “We needed two big wars and a period of thirty years until we realized that we ourselves assumed a leading position in the world. Today we want to maintain this dominant position.”*2 In his speech delivered at St. Louis, Missouri, on May 10 of the same year, he remarked: “We ourselves have just taken over the leading position which President Wilson gave us after World War I. ... We refused to assume the position after World War I but drew a lesson from World War II. ... Isolationist view really runs counter to the situation we are placed in.”*3 This reveals the US ruling circles’ ambition to carry out the policy of world domination without hesitation.
*1. Outline of American Political History, Vol. II, Pyongyang, p. 327. See Truman, Memoirs, Vol. II, Tokyo. *2. The U.S.A., April 24, 1950. *3. The U.S.A., June 10, 1950.
Subsequently, insolent, anachronistic voices began to be heard from the US, describing the 20th century as an “American century” when “America dominates the world”. To bring this reactionary theory into practice, US mouthpieces noisily trumpeted such programmes as the “establishment of a world state” and the “founding of the European united states as a branch of the world federation”.
This insane reactionary movement for founding “a world federation” was based on an aggressive “doctrine of the American century” which was aimed at establishing US imperialism’s supremacy over the whole world in the 20th century, and the advocates of the movement were racialists without exception. They preached the “superiority” of the Anglo-Saxon race, alleging that this race alone was entrusted with the mission to “enlighten” and “guide” other “inferior” nations of the world.
As can be seen, immediately after World War II the US imperialists defined the realization of their ambition of world conquest as the general task
7
of their policy of aggression and expansion.
But, they confronted a big obstacle in materializing their aggressive policy of world domination. It was the trend of the development of the international situation in which the revolutionary forces aspiring after peace, democracy, national independence and socialism were growing stronger beyond measure.
As the world was not moving according to their wishes, the US imperialists intensified their reactionary offensive against the revolutionary forces as never before in all domains of politics, the economy, the military and culture while resorting to a “policy of strength” based on atomic blackmail as the main instrument for fulfilling their ambitions for world domination.
The "blockade policy" was the first counterrevolutionary strategy elaborated by US imperialism on the basis of the "policy of strength" after World War II.
The “blockade policy" was aimed at directing the main efforts to "blockading" the socialist countries in an all-round way under the ridiculous pretext of "threat of international communism" and, at the same time, launching armed intervention in all regions where the revolutionary movements were surging. In adopting the "blockade policy" the US imperialists calculated that they would be able to prevent socialism from growing beyond the bounds of a single country and developing into a worldwide system and check the process of the collapse of the imperialist colonial system resulting from the growth of the national-liberation movements and, further, establish supremacy over the world with ease. In carrying out the "blockade policy" based on the "position of strength" they applied mainly methods of establishing military bases in all parts of the world and forming an encircling net with enormous military power around socialist countries and People’s Democracies.
Moreover, basing themselves on the "position of strength," economically the US imperialists advocated a "dollar diplomacy" and schemed to place their allies, which had been weakened by the war, and the backward countries under the firm grip of US monopoly capital through their "aid" to those countries. Politically, they resorted to vicious manoeuvres to create political confusion, national split and internal disturbances in other countries.
All these methods of aggression showed the different machinations of the US imperialists to build up a system of world domination in reliance on their enormous military and economic power. But, all these were doomed, from the start, to failure as they represented an extremely adventurous strategy of aggression based on an underestimation of the revolutionary forces and on an
8
overestimation of their own strength.
US Imperialism’s Sinister Design to Turn Korea into Its Outpost for World Domination
In carrying out the aggressive policy of world domination the US imperialists attached the greatest importance to Asia. It was because, firstly, after World War II the revolutionary forces grew rapidly in Asia and a revolutionary tempest was sweeping the whole continent and, secondly,the balance of forces between the imperialist powers underwent the greatest change in this region after the war.
Already at that time Asia became the main battle front against imperialism and the main theatre of anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle.
Under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, the Korean people had defeated Japanese imperialism and won a brilliant victory in their glorious anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. They were the first to sever a link in the chain of the imperialist colonial system at the eastern corner of Asia. Besides, the peoples of China, Viet Nam and Indonesia and hundreds of millions of other people in the Orient embarked on a sacred revolutionary struggle for national independence and liberation. This further aggravated the general crisis of imperialism in Asia.
Such developments in Asia could not but exert a deep-going influence on the US policy-makers who pursued their policy of world domination.
The revolutionary tempest in Asia made the US ruling circles more and more inclined to the "Asia first policy".
Wedemeyer who was Chiang Kai-shek’s military adviser said in his confidential report sent to US President Truman in 1947 that if communism spread effectively at an increased speed over the Far East regions it would affect the future of the US and other countries interested in the politics of the democratic and capitalist mode and the fact that the greater part of 1,040 million communists and their sympathizers of the world were in Asia constituted the biggest threat to capitalist countries.*His remarks clearly revealed how keenly the US rulers had felt the need for directing the spearhead of their expansionist policy to Asia.
It was for this reason that the US government, as was shown by subsequent developments, actually directed its policy of aggression and war mainly against Asia, although the advocates of the Europe priority policy led by Tru-
9
man and Acheson had once been predominant, clamouring about the "security" of Europe as ever.
In its policy toward Europe the US government put stress on completely subjugating its West European allies and binding them effectively to the system of aggressive military alliance with the US as the “leader”, but in Asia its aggressive policy was mainly to maintain the colonial ruling system, the life line of imperialism. To preserve the colonial system was vital to the very existence of imperialism as it was essential to overcoming the general crisis of capitalism. That is why the US government had, in reality, exerted the greatest efforts on Asian aggression, irrespective of dissension between the "group of advocators of the Asia first policy" and that of the Europe priority policy.
The fact that at that time the largest part of overseas US armed forces were in the Far East was enough to show where the US government put stress in its expansionist policy.
In his letter sent to US Senator Joseph Martin in March 1951, MacArthur, the leading advocate of the "Asia first policy", remarked: "The future of Europe depends on the outcome of the fight with communism in Asia/1 Further, saying that Europe represented a moribund system and the region bordering on the Pacific, with a population of 800 million, would decide the course of world history for a thousand years ahead, he clamoured that the need to put stress on Asia in world strategy was proved by the fact that soldiers were shedding blood there while diplomats indulged in squabbles in this dying Europe. This shows what the basic orientation of the aggressive policy of US imperialism was.
* Albert C. Wedemeyer, Wedemeyer Reports, p. 454.
The reason why US imperialism directed the spearhead of aggression against Asia following World War II lies also in the fact that Asia became the main arena of anti-imperialist struggle and that the balance of forces of the imperialist powers underwent a rapid change there.
Asia had been an arena of fierce competition among the Western imperialist Powers for a wider scope of influence up to World War I.
But, as a result of the two world wars, Russia, Germany and Japan were left out of it, and even France was considerably weakened because of the powerful anti-imperialist, national-liberation struggle of the peoples in this region and the war damages France had suffered. US imperialism alone remained
10
there as the stronghold of the colonial ruling system.
It was in this situation that US imperialism directed its spearhead of aggression to Asia in its frantic attempt to escape the crisis of the imperialist colonial system which was being shaken to its foundation and to fulfil its evil ambition to dominate Asia in place of the old colonial powers, an ambition it had harboured from its birth.
When Asia became the chief target of aggression in the US policy of world domination, Korea became the first object of their Asian aggression because of her military-geographical location and politico-economic factors. And the US schemed to turn her into a strategic point of primary importance and a "testing ground" for world domination.
For US imperialism that had become the ringleader of modem imperialism, Korea was a requirement not merely as a commodity market or a source of raw materials, that is, as a colony in the general sense, but, what is more important, as a bridgehead for invading the Asian continent and as a strategic base from which to fight against national-liberation movements and socialism and, ultimately, to attain world supremacy.
Why, then, did US imperialism regard Korea as an advance base of such importance in its world supremacy?
It was, firstly, because of the military-strategic importance of the location of the Korean peninsula.
Geographically, Korea which borders on China and Russia was the gateway to the Asian continent and, at the same time, an important point under the nose of Japan. US imperialism, therefore, considered that Korea was situated at a point favourable to dealing blows on any area of Northeast Asia.
MacArthur, who was aware of the military and strategic importance in the situation of Korea, raved: If Japan is "a future springboard, Korea suits a plan for a bridge leading to the continent."* ^
"By occupying all of Korea we could cut into pieces the one and only supply line connecting Siberia and the south..., control the whole area between Vladivostok and Singapore.... Nothing would then be beyond the reach of our power."*2
*1. Israel Epstein, The Unfinished Revolution in China.
*2. Hershel D. Meyer, The Modern History of the United States, Kyoto, p. 148.
These remarks of MacArthur which remind one of the notorious Tanaka
11
Memorandum show that the geographical position of the Korean peninsula was the chief reason why the US had chosen Korea as its strategic base for continental domination.
Hershel D. Meyer, an American, was suggestive when he pointed out that Tanaka’s plan for aggression became the policy of the reactionary US government through MacArthur. He wrote that "MacArthur who made up his mind to become the "sovereign of the Far East', had clearly borne in mind the Tanaka Memorandum" and that "MacArthur's advice was decisive not only for the group for 'Asia first policy' but also for our highest financial world".*1 Korea had so great a military-strategic value in the US imperialism’s policy of world aggression that it considered the domination of Korea as a key to its Asian aggression and a "testing ground" affecting the success of the scheme for world supremacy. Outwardly, it placed Korea out of the perimeter of the US "defence line" in the Pacific and declared that "the United States has little military interest in maintaining troops or a base in Korea".*2 But, in reality, it said that "in view of the strategic position held by Korea in Northeast Asia, establishment of control over Korea and her people... will considerably strengthen the position of our country".*^
It is by no means fortuitous that MacArthur said: "We will defend Korea just as we defend our country and California."*4
*1. The Modern History of the United States , Kyoto, p. 148. *2. Truman, Memoirs , Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 229.
*3. The Report of Information & Investigation Bureau of the US State Department, January 28, 1949, No. 4849. (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists , p. 6.) *4. Frank Kelley & Cornelius Ryan, MacArthur, Man of Action . p. 127.
The second reason why US imperialism regarded Korea as an advance base for its world supremacy strategy lay in Korea’s political importance.
The US ruling circles’ views on the political importance of Korea were clearly revealed in the letter sent to Truman by Edwin W. Pauley, US Presidential Representative on Reparations, who visited south Korea from late May to early June, 1946. In it he gave a summary of his "views on the situation of Korea, conclusions and counsels". He wrote: "Frankly, I am greatly concerned with our position in Korea. It is an ideological battleground upon which our entire success in Asia may depend.
12
"In other words, I think that it is here where a test will be made of whether democracy (American-style democracy, namely, capitalism-Author) can be adapted to meet the challenge of a defeated feudalism or whether communism will become stronger." Further, expressing his anxiety for the present US policy toward Korea, he "advised" an intensification of the aggressive poli-cy.*
*Truman, Memoirs , Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 224.
Pauley’s "recommendation" proves that politically US imperialism regarded Korea as an "arena of competition" where a struggle would be waged between revolution and counterrevolution and as grounds for an ideological battle between imperialism and socialism.
As can be seen, in its policy of aggression toward Korea after World War II, US imperialism defined her as an advance base of primary importance for the aggression of Asia and the world after both military and political considerations, namely militarily it considered Korea to be the "only, secure point connecting the US military apparatuses with the Asian mainland", and politically it regarded her as an "ideological battleground" or a "testing ground" of a life-and-death struggle between capitalism and communism.
The Accursed 38th Parallel
Having fully estimated Korea’s military and strategic value in carrying out their policy of world domination in Asia, the US imperialists planned to place the whole Korean peninsula under their control, taking advantage of the victorious war against Japan, so that they might easily prepare a prerequisite to world supremacy and secure an advance base for continental invasion.
As a reflex of such an underhand design, the US imperialists intrigued at the close of World War II to occupy the whole of Korea and then even Manchuria before the Japanese Kwantung Army was annihilated by the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army and the Soviet troops.
The US imperialists did not want the KPRA to liberate Korea in cooperation with the Soviet troops. It was because Korea’s liberation by the communists would mean the failure of their original aggression plan for turning her into an advance base or a military strongpoint for their continental aggression and the frustration of their policy of world domination aimed at securing con-
13
trol of China and Japan and reigning over all of Asia. The US imperialists, therefore, hoped that their Pacific army under Mac Arthur’s command would occupy the whole of Korea and seize even the Kwantung Province, an industrial area of Manchuria.*
*In the "recommendation" sent to Truman at that time by Edwin W. Pauley, US Presidential Representative on Reparations, the following passage occurs: "Conclusions I have reached through discussions on reparations and otherwise lead me to the belief that our forces should quickly occupy as much of the industrial areas of Korea and Manchuria as we can, starting at the southerly tip and progressing northward.” (Truman, Memoirs , Vol. I, Tokyo, p. 316.). Harriman, the then US ambassador to the USSR, urged in his recommendation: "While at Potsdam, General Marshall and Admiral King told me of the proposed landings (of US troops) in Korea and Dairen if the Japanese give in prior to Soviet troops occupying these areas.... I recommend that these landings be made to accept surrender of the Japanese troops at least in the Kwantung Peninsula and in Korea." (Ibid., pp. 316-17.)
But, their ambitious plan fell through from the outset. At the time their armed forces were too weak to occupy such vast areas.
When the US ruling circles were dreaming the sweet dream of landing in Korea and dominating its whole territory, the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, together with the Soviet troops, was advancing southward like an angry wave routing the one million strong Kwantung Army. When the US troops, totally exhausted in the Okinawa battle, were hanging around the southern tip of the Japanese islands, the KPRA, in concerted operation with the Soviet troops, disembarked at Sosura and Chongjin and was liberating Korea. In this situation, President Truman felt deeply grieved at the shortage of strength in contrast to their ambition. Later he wrote in his Memoirs : "We had no troops there (Korea-Quoter.) and no shipping to land forces at more than a few locations in the southern half of the peninsula. The State Department urged that in all Korea the surrender of Japanese forces should be taken by Americans, but there was no way to get our troops into the northern part of the country with the speed required without sacrificing the security of our initial landings in Japan."*
*Truman, Memoirs , Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 219.
14
The US imperialists landed their troops in Inchon on September 8, over 20 days after the defeat of Japanese imperialism. This bespeaks that at that time it was beyond their power to send their troops even to south Korea, let alone to north Korea, to fight against the Japanese aggressor troops and that they were not without "enough time" to send forces to Korea but, more importantly, without any intention to shed blood for the liberation of Korea.
The US imperialists were absorbed in searching for a way to occupy Korea without shedding blood and intended to seize by any means even part of the Korean peninsula, if not all, and to use it as a springboard for their future continental aggression. From this crafty design of the US ruling circles sprang the plan for the "bloodless occupation" of Korea.
They considered that in order to occupy one part of Korea without the least bloodshed they should check the communists’ advance into Korea at a definite point and provide a guarantee for this by a certain international agreement. On this calculation they adopted a criminal plan, that is, to divide Korea into north and south and prevent her people from liberating their country through their own efforts. This was the so-called "practical solution" as mentioned by Truman.*
*Referring to this, Truman said: "The 38th parallel as a dividing line in Korea was never the subject of international discussions. It was proposed by us as a practical solution when the sudden collapse of the Japanese war machine created a vacuum in Korea." (Ibid., p.
219.)
This was how the "practical solution" was decided on by the US government to bisect the Korean nation who had lived as a homogeneous nation on the same land with an ancient history.
Then, where should a dividing line be drawn on the Korean peninsula? As the Japanese government gave a hint of its acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration and the southward advance of the KPRA and the Soviet troops was accelerated at that time, the US ruling circles rushed the solution of the problem as an immediate task. John Gunther, MacArthur’s confidant and the government-patronized journalist, wrote in his book entitled The Riddle of Mac Arthur: "It was imperatively necessary for the United States to work out some mechanism by which the Soviet troops would not simply flood down and take all of Korea. We had to stop them at some line of demarcation."*! This may be a reflexion of the sinister designs of the US ruling circles and their impatience at the time.
15
Their sinister designs became one of the major subjects of debate on the so-called "General Order No. 1".*2
*1. John Gunther. The Kiddle of Mac-Arthur, Tokyo, p. 277.
*2. "General Order No. 1" provides that in Japan proper and other areas such as Korea. China, Taiwan, Indochina, Burma, the Philippines and islands in the Pacific, which had been before August 15. 1945 under its occupation, Japanese imperialism shall surrender to any one of the commanders of the USSR, Kuomintang’s China, the US and Australia. This order was soon transmitted to the Soviet government and issued by MacArthur on September 2.
At that time, Byrnes, the then US State Secretary, proposed to "accept surrender (of Japanese imperialism) in northern areas as far as possible." But the Department of the Army opposed the proposal, insisting that it was impracticable because of "insurmountable obstacles such as too far distance" from the frontline and "shortage of manpower". Truman said that if he had considered "only to what point the US troops could march northward without meeting any resistance of the enemy", "a line could be drawn far south of the peninsula" of Korea. He gave instructions that this problem should be finally solved at the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee.
It was said that those army officers who gathered at the Department of Defence that day on the President’s instruction were mostly junior officers from brigadiers to colonels. They argued over the division of the Korean peninsula until they agreed that they "have got to divide Korea and it has to be done by four o’clock this afternoon".* In the end, in consideration of the military operations assigned to both the Soviet and US armies at the time, they drew a line at 38 degrees north latitude.
*John Gunther, The Riddle of MacArthur. Tokyo, p. 277.
The assignments of military operations of both the Soviet and US armies referred to the operational line of demarcation for air and naval forces and the allotment of operational zones for the ground force.
Earlier, when the heads of the USSR, US and Britain had met at Potsdam, they had had a discussion about the establishment of a definite line of demarcation for the operational conveniences of air and naval forces of the Soviet and US armies in all areas of Korea, in case the Soviet Union would take part in the
16
Pacific war. On the pretext of this line of demarcation, the American militarists schemed to fix the 38th parallel as the dividing line.
The Japanese army had drawn a line along the 38th parallel towards the close of the Pacific war when it reorganized the military commanding system according to different tasks of defence. Reorganizing on February 1, 1945. the so-called "commanding system for operations on the mainland", the Japanese "Imperial Headquarters" dissolved the "Korean troops", or the Japanese aggressor troops occupying Korea, and placed the troops stationed in the north of the 38th parallel under the command of the Japanese Kwantung Army and those in the south of it under the command of the 17th Corps which had been the field army under the "Imperial Headquarters". The objective of the dissolution of the "Korean troops" in the intermediary area, which served no purpose in the defence of the continent and Japan proper, was to attach them to the Kwantung Army and the army defending the mainland to reinforce the armed forces in anticipation of the southward advance of the Soviet troops and the US army’s landing operation on the Japanese mainland.
Thus, the Soviet troops which had entered the war against Japan were to directly confront the Kwantung Army in the areas north of Korea’s 38th parallel and in Manchuria. And, in case the US army conducted landing operations it would expectedly have to fight Japanese troops in the area south of the 38th parallel of Korea and on Japan proper. Those officers who assembled at the US Department of Defence under instructions from Truman fixed the 38th parallel as the dividing line, taking their grounds mainly on the operational assignments of the Soviet and American air and naval forces and on the difference of operational objective between the Soviet and US ground forces resulting from the reorganized commanding system of the Japanese army.
Thus, they agreed upon a "final blueprint" according to which the Japanese aggressive forces stationed in Manchuria, Korea north of the 38th parallel and Saghalien had to offer surrender to the commander of the Soviet Far East army and those in Japan proper, Korea south of the 38th parallel and the Philippines to the commander of the US Far East forces. It was on this basis that "General Order No. 1" was completed, which included the procedure of surrender of the Japanese aggressive forces in China’s Taiwan and in the areas of Southeast Asia.
Truman approved this order, very satisfied with the fact that by virtue of it the US was "entitled to accept surrender of the Japanese forces in Seoul, an ancient city of Korea", without shedding even a drop of blood. As a result, the 38th parallel became an accursed line for the Korean people which brought
17
them the tragedy of the country’s bisection and national split never known before throughout their long history.
As can be seen, it was the US imperialists who contrived the partition of the Korean peninsula on the 38th parallel and made it public to the world.
Internationally, however, the 38th parallel was considered to be significant only as a temporary line of demarcation for postwar settlement of the problem of surrender of the Japanese army.
Nevertheless, later US imperialism, acting contrary to this basic spirit, manoeuvred to turn the 38th parallel into a permanent dividing line, into a bulwark to make south Korea its colony and military-strategic base.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"The US imperialists are manoeuvring to turn the 38th parallel into a permanent ‘frontier1 which divides our territory into two parts and splits our nation."
Immediately after the US troops’ occupation of south Korea, the 38th parallel was used for other purposes. The US imperialists enforced the "military government" in south Korea and followed a policy of converting it into a military base and a policy of national division. Thus, they trampled upon the Korean people’s desire for founding a united, democratic central government and turned this invisible 38th parallel into a "border line" which froze the territorial bisection and national division, into a dagger which cut off the kinship bond of our homogeneous nation and into a cursed barrier to reunification.
With this line as the background, a curtain rose on the history of colonial rule of the US imperialists who wanted to turn south Korea into a military strategic point for aggression on Asia and a sinister war plot was devised to "push up the 38th parallel beyond the Amnok River."
2) Occupation of South Korea by the US
Imperialists and Their Establishment of
a Colonial Military Rule
Occupation of South Korea by the US Imperialist Aggressor Army
The entire north and south Korean people who had hailed the country’s
18
liberation as a result of the defeat of Japanese imperialism were quivering with delight and passion amid a deep emotion and excitement over national resurrection.
Around this time, with a view to carrying out their plan to make Korea an advance base for their world domination, the US imperialists fixed the 38th parallel as the demarcation line and occupied south Korea on the pretext of "disarming the Japanese troops in the south of the 38 degrees north latitude". They reigned over it as colonial rulers, throwing a grave obstacle in the path of building a new society by the south Korean people.
Prior to the entry of their armed forces into south Korea, the US imperialists, under the pretext of "maintaining public peace in south Korea", kept intact the government-general in the period of Japanese imperialist rule and retained the defeated generals of the Japanese army, war criminals, in their posts.
On August 20, 1945, at Manila, capital of the Philippines, Douglas MacArthur, the then Commander-in-Chief of the US Army Forces, Pacific, cabled to Abe Nobuyuki, the Japanese governor-general of Korea, his "special order" that the governor-general and the commander-in-chief of the troops in Korea assume the responsibility of "maintaining public peace in south Korea" and that no person other than they is allowed to "maintain public peace".*
*Mun Hak Bong, who was the advisor to the "US Military Government" and the "CIC" and the political advisor to Syngman Rhee, spoke of the "special order" of MacArthur as follows: ‘The special order states that the governor-general of Korea and the commander-in-chief of the troops in Korea should maintain public peace in south Korea entirely on their own responsibility and no one other than these two persons was allowed to maintain it. The order adds that in case they refuse to do so or do not fulfil their responsibility they shall be punished." (Mun Hak Bong, Exposure of the Truth about the US Imperialist Policy of Aggression against Korea and the Real Provoke r of the Civil War, Pyongyang, p. 20.)
MacArthur’s "special order" which charged the Japanese governor-general of Korea and commander-in-chief of the troops in Korea with the task of "maintaining public peace" in south Korea until the US army occupied it was aimed at checking the south Korean people’s struggle to build a new society and creating conditions favourable for the US occupation of south Korea and its establishment of colonial rule there.
The US imperialists, therefore, denied the liberated south Korean people
19
freedom of all political activities for building an independent and sovereign country and issued one "proclamation" after another, forcing them to "submit" to the colonial rule by the governor-general of Korea.
On September 2, 1945, in his "proclamation" entitled "To All People in South Korea", John Hodges, former commander of the US 24th Army Corps, announced that "proclamations and orders issued to the people shall be made public through the existing government offices" ("Government-General of Korea" -Quote r.) and that "orders" from the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers "shall be strictly followed and executed, and any person who unfortunately disobeys them shall suffer punishment". In another "proclamation" entitled "To the Korean People", he threatened them with the words that "rash and imprudent acts of inhabitants will cause a meaningless loss of lives, devastation of beautiful land and retardation of rehabilitation" and that "even if present circumstances disagree with your thinking, all of you need to keep serenity for the sake of the future of Korea, and any act incurring domestic disturbances shall never be committed".
The successive "orders" and "proclamations" of the US imperialists were aimed at preventing, with the help of Japanese imperialism, the establishment of an independent government by the Korean people themselves before the landing of their troops, trampling upon the democratic rights and freedom of the south Korean people and creating conditions favourable to their occupation of south Korea and colonial rule in it.
Having completed the preparations for the occupation of south Korea, the US imperialists landed the "advance contingent" of the 24th Army Corps in Inchon on September 7, 1945. The following day, on September 8, two-division forces of the 24th Army Corps 45,000 strong started occupation of south Korea under the direct command of Hodges.
Simultaneously with this, MacArthur successively made public his proclamations Nos 1, 2 and 3 dated September 7, which were dropped from planes all over south Korea.
In "Proclamation" No. 1 MacArthur announced the institution of a military occupation system in south Korea, preservation of the property of landlords and capitalists and prohibition of free political activities. Moreover, he declared that inhabitants in south Korea were duty bound to unconditionally obey his orders and that "acts of resistance to the occupying forces or any acts which may disturb public peace and safety will be punished severely", and forced the use of English as the official language for all purposes.*! In the sub-
20
sequent "proclamation" No. 2 which imposed restrictions on the free activities of the south Korean people, MacArthur stated that any person who did any act hostile to them should, upon "conviction" by "Military Occupation Court", suffer death or other heavy punishment.*2
* 1. "Proclamation of the General Headquarters of the US Army Forces, Pacific" No. 1. *2. "Proclamation of the General Headquarters of the US Army Forces, Pacific" No. 2.
These "proclamations" constituted flagrant violations of the sovereignty of the Korean people. They were a prelude to the enforcement of a cruel military government which the US imperialists could not bring into reality even in vanquished Japan. They were also a declaration to the whole world of the US occupation of south Korea and the beginning of their colonial rule. Hence, even an American government-patronized correspondent could not but describe the US troops’ occupation of south Korea as follows: "We were not a liberation army. We rushed there in order to occupy it, in order to watch whether the Koreans obey the conditions of surrender. From the first days of our landing we have acted as the enemy of the Koreans."*
*Mark Gayn, Japan Diary, Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 166.
How, then, did the US imperialists establish the military ruling system in south Korea?
Hodges, Commander of the US 24th Army Corps, who entered Seoul on September 9, acted in accordance with what he was instructed from the US Department of State prior to his landing in south Korea. He received first from Abe detailed accounts of his rule as governor-general and took over the whole military, police and other fascist apparatuses of Japanese imperialism. And, on September 11, he announced the establishment of the "US Military Government Office" in south Korea and appointed Major General of the US army Arnold as the "military governor". Thus, under the pretext of military administration a govemor-general-ruling-system was virtually established. Along with the establishment of the "Military Government Office," the so-called "court-martials" were set up in Seoul and all provinces and a "military court" in each county to restrict and suppress the free activities of the Korean people.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"While professing themselves to be ‘champions of democracy’ in Korea,
21
the Americans practically established the US governor-general-ruling-system in place of the Japanese one, under the signboard of the military administration."
As a result, a signboard of the "US Military Government Office" was hung out on the former building of the Japanese "Government-General Office," the old fascist machines and ruling methods were retained and inherited and colonial sovereign power was transferred to the US imperialists. When Hodges said that "I am using Japanese ruling machines, because at present it is a most effective way of management",* he revealed the whole truth that retaining and taking over the Japanese imperialist ruling machines by the US imperialists had been a link in the chain of their aggressive policy toward south Korea.
*People’s World (San Francisco), September 19, 1945.
In this way, the history of colonial rule of US imperialism started in south Korea, replacing that of Japanese imperialism. From that time south Korea began to be reduced to a US imperialist military base for a new war.
US imperialist occupation of south Korea spelt the greatest national misfortune to the liberated Korean people. It was the root cause of a calamity of territorial bisection and national division which the Korean people had never experienced during their long history of five thousand years. It gave rise to a hotbed of a new war in Korea, and the US imperialist policy of turning south Korea into a military base entered the stage of full-scale realization.
Colonial Enslavement and Military Base Policies of the "US Military Government"
From the first day of their occupation of south Korea, the US imperialists followed colonial enslavement and military base policies on the strength of their military government.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"The US army set out on a policy of colonial enslavement as soon as it occupied south Korea. In the first place, it adopted two basic policies to attain its goal. Politically, it smothered all the initiatives towards democracy of the liberated people, who set themselves against its policy of colonial enslavement,
22
and suppressed all the democratic forces. At the same time, it gathered and fostered the reactionary forces to use in the implementation of its aggressive policy aimed at splitting the Korean nation and turning Korea into a US colony. Economically, it pursued a policy of hampering the development of Korea’s national economy and industry and subordinating them to the economy of the United States." (Kim Il Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 4, p. 176.)
In its policy of political enslavement aimed at turning south Korea into US colony, the "US Military Government" put the main stress on the suppression and liquidation of the democratic and patriotic forces of the Korean people by arms and the rallying and fostering of the reactionary forces, so that it might consolidate its political foothold for the establishment of colonial rule in south Korea and the domination of all Korea.
In fact, all the policies adopted by US imperialism toward south Korea, including that of establishment of the "US Military Government", were, without exception, related to its aggressive design to convert south Korea into a colonial military base and use it as a stepping-stone for the conquest of the whole of Korea.
In carrying out its plan of aggression on Korea, US imperialism considered it most important of all to stamp out the sovereignty of the Korean people and place them under its domination. As an initial step towards this, it had to suppress and dissolve through the "Military Government" the People’s Committees at the point of the bayonet and prohibit the political activities of patriotic democratic forces in all walks of life. In October 1945, Hodges announced: "The Military Government is the sole government of Korea."* Further, he demanded that "the inhabitants in south Korea obey the orders of the Military Government Office", threatening them with the words that "if there is any person who complains of the orders or deliberately slanders the Military Government, he shall suffer punishment". Thus, he manoeuvred to subject them completely to the "US Military Government".
*George M. McCune, Korea Today, New York, 1950.
Arnold, the first "military governor", said: "There exists only one government in Korea south of 38 degrees north latitude and it is the Military Government established on the basis of proclamations of Marshal MacArthur, general orders of Lieutenant-General Hodges and civil administration orders of the Military Government."* He planned to suppress and forcibly dissolve the Peo-
23
pie’s Committees which had been set up throughout south Korea and concentrate all power on the "Military Government Office".
* People’s World (San Francisco), January 5. 1946.
For this purpose, the US imperialists retained all laws enforced in the days of Japanese rule and, at the same time, concocted and proclaimed a lot of new evil laws.
US "Military Government Ordinance" No. 21 issued on November 2, 1945, proclaimed that "all laws which were in force, regulations, orders, notices or other documents issued by any former government of Korea (that is, Japanese government or government-general) having the force of law on August 9, 1945... will continue in full force and effect until repealed by expressed order of the Military Government".* In this way they retained the laws which had been in force in the days of Japanese rule and added to them new military government ordinances. As a result, more than 500 evil laws were rigged up and made public.
* Korean Central Yearbook, Pyongyang, 1949, p. 166.
US "Military Government Ordinance" No. 55 dated February 23, 1946, which promulgated the "Regulations of Political Parties" stipulated that "...each group of three or more persons who engage in any form of political activities...shall register such organization as a political party", that "activities conducted by any group or organization...shall be political when they tend to influence the politics of the government including foreign relations" and that such "political activities be banned". Thus, all progressive political activities of the south Korean people would suffer severe punishment.
On May 4, 1946, US "Military Government Ordinance" No. 72 which stipulated "Crimes against Military Administration" defined all the following acts as "crimes": "supporting, cooperating with and leading any group and movement contrary to the interests of the occupation forces or participating in the organization thereof; printing, spreading publications and literature supporting such activities or possessing such documents as propagating and disseminating the above-mentioned activities...; organizing, furthering, helping or participating in any unauthorized public assembly, parade or demonstration...; publishing and spreading publications and literature which further complaint
24
and displeasure". (Article 1 of US "Military Government Ordinance" No. 72, May 4, 1946.) Any acts contrary to this ordinance were cruelly suppressed.
According to US "Military Government Ordinances" Nos. 55 and 72, iiatherings of three and more Koreans constituted political party activities and any activities of Koreans could be punished unconditionally whenever they were not to the liking of the "US Military Government". Brandishing such fascist evil laws, the "US Military Government" intensified repression of patriotic democratic forces and dissolved by force the people’s committees. Referring to the criminal repressive acts committed by the US in south Korea, even a US government-patronized correspondent remarked: "To drive this (people’s com-mitlQes-Quoter) underground we could do nothing else for two months." His remark may be a confession of how much trouble the "US Military Government" had in suppressing the democratic forces.
Because of the ruthless repressive manoeuvres of the US, not only the people’s committees were disbanded in the first days of the military administration but also the activities of all the progressive political parties and social organizations in south Korea were completely outlawed in the summer of 1947. A large number of people were arrested, imprisoned or cruelly massacred at the point of the bayonet of the US army.
Even according to preliminary statistics, as many as 4,200 and more patriots and people were slaughtered in the one year of 1946. Seeing such a state of affairs, even an American wrote: "One of the most important things we gained from our occupation of Korea may be that we held back revolution there" (south Korea-Quoter).* This exposed the truth about the repressive manoeu-vrings of US imperialism.
* Saturday Evening Post, March 30, 1946.
While disbanding the people’s committees, progressive political parties and social organizations and harshly suppressing free activities of the patriotic democratic forces, the US made it the main task of the "Military Government" to rally pro-Japanese and pro-US elements, traitors to the nation and other reactionary forces in order to create a political basis for its colonial rule.
For this purpose, in October 1945 the US brought traitor Syngman Rhee, its old stooge, to south Korea and made him a chieftain of the reactionary forces.
In mustering the reactionary forces, the US imperialists pursued a policy
25
of giving priority to fostering comprador capitalists while, at the same time, rearing landlords and reactionary bureaucrats, rigging up various reactionary organizations which represented their interests, and actively protecting and furthering them.
Due to the US policy of rallying reactionary forces, the "Hanguk Democratic Party"* was founded in September 1945 with landlords, comprador capitalists and Japanese collaborators, and all judicial institutions were reorganized into the "US Army Occupation Court" to be used as an instrument for suppressing people.
able" devoted stooges of the US imperialists, it was an organization for rallying the reactionary forces and one of the colonial ruling machines which served as a consultative body of the "US Military Government," for justifying the policy of colonial enslavement by giving "advice" on the colonial rule of the "military governor".
After inventing the council, the US hurried on laying the political basis of the reactionary forces. To this end, it won over Kim Song Su, heinous Japanese collaborator, big landlord, comprador capitalist, advocate of "student volunteers" in the period of Japanese rule and "president" of the Pusan college, and placed him as "chairman" of the council and dragged all sorts of riffraff into it, such as Song Jin U who as’ an agent of the Japanese "gendarmerie" had informed against a lot of patriots to be slaughtered, comprador capitalist Kim Yong Sun who had been called the "king of patented medicine suppliers" and gained sudden wealth by supplying medicine to the Japanese aggressor army, and pro-Japanese Li Yong Sol who had preached "assimilation" with Japan to the Korean people during the Pacific War.
Lining up reactionary forces in south Korea formed the substance of the policy of colonial enslavement through which the US aggressors reshaped the balance of political forces to consolidate the colonial military ruling system based on the "Military Government" and establish their domination in all Korea.
Another important objective of the US policy of colonial enslavement in south Korea was to completely subordinate the south Korean economy to the US economy through military administration.
The policy of economic enslavement is a material guarantee for consolidating colonial rule.
From the moment of their occupation of south Korea the US imperialists pursued a policy of hampering the development of the national industry and economy and thoroughly subordinating them to the US economy.
No sooner had they set foot in south Korea than they issued US "Military Government Ordinance" No. 2-"On Enemy Property"*-on September 25, 1945, and No. 33-"On Acquisition of Property of the Japanese in Korea"-on December 6 of the same year, which provided that public or private property owned by the Japanese in south Korea was taken over by the "US Military Government Office". Thus, they placed the south Korean economy under their complete control and established a system for running it according to the US aggressive policy.
27
* Along with the "Hanguk Democratic Party, " the following reactionary organizations were formed: "National Young Men’s Association" (October, 1946), "Association of Young Men from the Northwest" (November, 1946), "Taedong Young Men’s Association" (September, 1947), "General Federation of Taehan Independent Trade Unions" (March, 1946) and "General Federation of Taehan Independent Peasant Unions" (August, 1947). They constituted the political basis of colonial rule with the support and encouragement of the "US Military Government." (Korean Central Yearbook, 1949. Pyongyang, pp. 228-29.)
The "US Military Government" did not confine itself to setting up reactionary political parties and social organizations of all hues comprising national traitors and pro-Japanese and pro-US elements. In order to lend national colouring to the military administration and build up the backbone of the reactionary forces, it produced the so-called "Military Government Advisory Council" on October 5, 1945, and, through it, further intensified the policy of political enslavement toward south Korea.
Referring to the "Military Government Advisory Council", Hodges guilefully raved as if it had been formed for the "preparations of broader political participation of Koreans". *1 But, in fact, its concoction was the result of an "attempt to set up an organization of Koreans who are ‘to be relied upon’ (by the US) and can play the kernel in rallying opposition forces" for suppressing the people’s committees.*2
* 1. The Supreme Command for the Allied Powers, Summation, (1), p. 177.
*2. David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. I, Tokyo, p. 43.
As for the "Military Government Advisory Council" comprising "reli-
26
able" devoted stooges of the US imperialists, it was an organization for rallying the reactionary forces and one of the colonial ruling machines which served as a consultative body of the "US Military Government," for justifying the policy of colonial enslavement by giving "advice" on the colonial rule of the "military governor".
After inventing the council, the US hurried on laying the political basis of the reactionary forces. To this end, it won over Kim Song Su, heinous Japanese collaborator, big landlord, comprador capitalist, advocate of "student volunteers" in the period of Japanese rule and "president" of the Pusan college, and placed him as "chairman" of the council and dragged all sorts of riffraff into it, such as Song Jin U who as’ an agent of the Japanese "gendarmerie" had informed against a lot of patriots to be slaughtered, comprador capitalist Kim Yong Sun who had been called the "king of patented medicine suppliers" and gained sudden wealth by supplying medicine to the Japanese aggressor army, and pro-Japanese Li Yong Sol who had preached "assimilation" with Japan to the Korean people during the Pacific War.
Lining up reactionary forces in south Korea formed the substance of the policy of colonial enslavement through which the US aggressors reshaped the balance of political forces to consolidate the colonial military ruling system based on the "Military Government" and establish their domination in all Korea.
Another important objective of the US policy of colonial enslavement in south Korea was to completely subordinate the south Korean economy to the US economy through military administration.
The policy of economic enslavement is a material guarantee for consolidating colonial rule.
From the moment of their occupation of south Korea the US imperialists pursued a policy of hampering the development of the national industry and economy and thoroughly subordinating them to the US economy.
No sooner had they set foot in south Korea than they issued US "Military Government Ordinance" No. 2-"On Enemy Property"*-on September 25, 1945, and No. 33-"On Acquisition of Property of the Japanese in Korea"-on December 6 of the same year, which provided that public or private property owned by the Japanese in south Korea was taken over by the "US Military Government Office". Thus, they placed the south Korean economy under their complete control and established a system for running it according to the US
27
* US "Military Government Ordinance" No. 2-"On Enemy Property"-stipulates: "Effective September 25, 1945, rights and interests with respect to any public or private property owned directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, in any form or content since 9 August, 1945, by Japanese south of 38 degrees north latitude are hereby taken over by the United States Military Government Office." By virtue of this ordinance, the US imperialists seized the main artery of the south Korean economy, and the "US Military Government Office" expropriated 85 per cent of the whole south Korean industry, or 2,707 factories and enterprises.
The following figures show how the US usurped the south Korean economy under the name of "enemy property":
Factories and mines-2,690; movable property-3,924; vessels-225; warehouses-2,818; shops-9.096; farmland-324,404 jongbo ; building lots-150.827; dwelling houses-48, 456; forests-70,039; ore hard s-2,3 86. (South Korean newspaper Seoul Sinmun, January 23. 1955.)
Even according to the announcement made by the US State Department, Japanese property seized by the "US Military Government Office" under the name of "enemy property" accounted for more than 80 per cent of the total amount of property in south Korea including movable and immovable property.
Moreover, in order to bring agriculture under their complete control the US imperialists renamed in February 1946 the "Oriental Development Company", the former Japanese agency for plundering land and grain, as the "New Korea Company" and expropriated the total arable land of south Korea. At that time, the total property held by the "New Korea Company" reached the sum of 1,250 million dollars; it owned 286,767 jongbo of cultivated land to which more than 554,000 farm households, or 27 per cent of the total farm households of south Korea, owed their existence. This meant that through the "New Korea Company" the US imperialists became the biggest landlord in south Korea who had acquired nearly one-tenth of over 2,670,000 jongbo of the arable land and 27 per cent of the farm households there. Even according to curtailed figures issued by the "US Military Government Office" in those days, by the end of March 1948 the US imperialists drew an income of as much as over 2,714,657,200 won through the "New Korea Company".*
* Korean Central Yearbook, Pyongyang, 1949, p. 189.
28
Establishing political, economic and military control by "aid" represented one of the neo-colonialist ruling forms adopted by the US in carrying out the policy of colonial enslavement in south Korea.
The US tightened its control over south Korea by "aid," too.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"It has already been well known to the whole world that US ‘economic aid’ to foreign countries is aimed at military and political control over them, and in south Korea it is manifested in a most blatant and impertinent form."
The "aid" given by the US imperialists to south Korea by the end of 1948 was mainly the "aid of GARIOA" ("Government and Relief in Occupied Areas") according to which war munitions and old-fashioned weapons not consumed by the US Department of War in World War II, were disposed of. This meant the switchover of the US "lend-lease" aid in the period of World War II to the "relief aid" aimed at disposing of wartime surplus munitions.
In addition to "aid of GARIOA," the US followed an "aid" policy of forcing its surplus consumption goods on south Korea. As a result, the total volume of US "aid" to south Korea amounted to 409, 690,000 dollars by the end of 1948. This enormous sum served the US imperialists as a powerful means for tightening the military and political control over south Korea and using all of its wealth for their political purpose.
Immediately after the announcement of the "Truman doctrine" in March 1947 the US media reported that the United States "is working out a program for Korean *aid* running into 600 million dollars and this is a component of the Truman doctrine."* This clearly shows what the real objective of their "aid" policy was.
* New York Herald Tribune, May 13, 1947.
By pointing out that US "aid" policy toward south Korea is a "component of the Truman doctrine" they revealed that the policy constituted a link in the chain of the general aggressive policy of the US imperialists who schemed to completely subordinate the south Korean economy to the US economy, put the puppet regime into the noose of the dollar and to turn south Korea into a military base as an important strategic base in the Far East.
From the first day of their occupation of south Korea the US imperialists, along with the policy of enslaving it politically and economically, followed the
29
policy of turning it into a military base.
This policy assumed primary importance in the US imperialist policy of colonial enslavement in south Korea and was a basic policy for attaining the general objective of colonial rule.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"The basic object of the US imperialist policy of colonial enslavement in south Korea is to reduce it to a military base of aggression for the United States, to turn it into a military appendage. Ever since they first landed in south Korea, the US imperialists have all along pursued the insidious aim of turning south Korea into their colony and using it as a stepping-stone for aggression against the whole of Korea and Asia." (Kim Il Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 20, p. 380.)
Upon landing in south Korea, the US imperialists made it the basic object of their policy of colonial enslavement to convert south Korea into a military base which would serve their war preparations for the domination of the whole of Korea and Asia.
Already at the beginning of 1946 the General Staff Office of the US Army Forces declared that "at the present time Korea forms part of the US boundary".*! It further said that in the military-strategic aspect it should be used for opposing Asia, and in June of the same year the US Department of War defined south Korea as one of the major objectives in the plan for establishing overseas permanent military bases.*2
* 1. Saturday Evening Post, March, 1946.
*2. In 1947 the Time reported that "Korea can be a commanding base in eastern coastal areas of Asia" (the Time, May 19, 1947), and the Journal American said that the problem of turning south Korea into a military and strategic base "is the object of joint consideration of the Army General Staff Office and the Naval Operations Office in Washington at present," (The Journal American, October 30, 1947.) Such press comments disclosed evidence of the fact that south Korea was the chief object of the US military base policy.
In particular, the true aim of the US military base policy toward south Korea was clearly exposed by the secret investigation report of Wedemeyer who, as a "special envoy" of President Truman, made on-the-spot inspections in China and south Korea. In the report he insisted that "the stationing of the US Army Forces in Korea should be continued," "military aid be offered to south Korea," "weapons and equipment be furnished without letup to the Kore-
30
an national police and Korean costal guards" and a "Korean patrol party under the command of Americans be set up." And he demanded a large-scale reinforcement of the US aggressor forces in south Korea.*
*US State Department, Relations between the United States and China, Beijing, p. 733.
Later, Wedemeyer’s report was adopted by the US government as a practical aggressive policy toward south Korea. In his statement of May 2, 1951, concerning the publication of the Investigation Report of Wedemeyer, US State Secretary Acheson said: "Certainly our (US government’ s-Quoter) line in Korea conforms with the advices made by General Wedemeyer."*
*AP dispatch from Washington, May 2, 1951.
These words of Acheson proved that in south Korea the US government faithfully put into practice the military base policy which was suggested in the secret report of Wedemeyer.
In carrying out the military base policy in south Korea, the US imperialists attached primary importance to convening it into an aggressive base for a new war.
From the first days of their occupation of south Korea the US imperialists retained military installations which had been built by the Japanese imperialists in areas of military and strategic importance, laid positions along the 38th parallel and built anew or expanded military roads, air fields and naval ports on a large scale.
For a speedy transport of war and strategic materiel and the promptness of large-scale military action, they reconstructed by the end of October 1947 the Seoul-Pusan highway at the expense of 1.5 million dollars and expanded the Seoul-Inchon road in the same year for war purposes. At the same time, in preparation for war to dominate the whole of Korea they fortified the areas along the Rimjin River between Seoul and Kaesong. Moreover, air bases were newly built or expanded on a large scale at Mosulpho of Jeju Island, Kimpho, Suwon, Osan, Kwangju, Kunsan, Taegu and other places throughout south Korea. In particular, stressing the military and strategic importance of Jeju Island the US imperialists reinforced general military installations there and expanded in a large way Mosulpho and other airports. In July 1946 the island was raised to the status of an administrative unit of provincial level and placed
31
under direct control of the command of the US occupation forces. Thus, it was rapidly reduced to a military base.*
* How much military and strategic importance was given to Jeju Island by the US imperialists was clearly shown by the report of the New York American Journal, which said: "From the strategic viewpoint Jeju Island is very important. Together with Okinawa Island it furnishes positions against the Soviet Union." (New York American Journal, October 30, 1947.)
The US imperialists spent 3 million dollars to build a naval port at Pho-hang, which had been a small fishing port before liberation, and turned Inchon, Pusan, Ryosu, Jinhae, etcetera into naval ports, with the result that their naval bases were found in different parts of south Korea.
Due to their hotly-pursued military base policy, within a period of no more than two or three years south Korea was completely reduced to a military base of the US aggressor army.
Another chief objective of the US military base policy was to reduce south Korea to a base for the supply of cheap cannon fodder.
In order to rake up as many inexpensive scapegoats as possible the US tried hard, from the very first days of its occupation of south Korea, to train "anti-communist soldiers" faithful to it by intensifying ideological propaganda among people in favour of "US-worship" and "anti-communism" and hysterically kicked up war rackets. That was why in those days the US warmongers and reptile press openly created an atmosphere of war, announcing that "the Korean question is a tinderbox" and "Korea is an area fraught with the greatest danger in the present world."
With a view to securing cheap cannon fodder, the US imperialists hurried, already from the autumn of 1945, with preparations for creating a puppet army; they set up various military agencies and institutions and built up aggressive armed forces step by step.
They did this under the pretext that it was aimed at "preventing the formation of private armed groups" and preparing the "ground for founding an army necessary to the existence of Korea, an independent country."*
* Summation, (2), p. 185.
On November 13, 1945, the US imperialists set up through the US "Mili-
32
tary Government Ordinance" No. 28 the "National Defence Headquarters" and appointed Colonel Ago of the US army as the first "Commander". It comprised reactionary elements and pro-Japanese elements, the former Japanese aggressor army officers of "accumulated experience" in suppressing their countrymen and in the aggressive war. These thugs were "provided with Japanese-made weapons and uniforms worth 52 million won."*
* David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. I, Tokyo, p. 136.
Afterwards, the "National Defence Headquarters" was renamed "National Defence Office" through the US "Military Government Ordinance" No. 64, but under the pressure of internal and external public opinion it again changed its name on June 14, 1946, into "Defence Office".
With a view to training commanding officers needed for the expansion of the puppet army the "Military English Institute" was set up on December 5, 1945, and on May 1, the following year, it was changed into the "National Defence Military Academy" where military training was conducted with emphasis on the American plan to train "cadres" of the military police.
After making these preparations, the US imperialists founded, on January 15, 1946, the south Korean "National Defence Force" composed of armed forces of eight regiments (more than 20,000 strong), and set up, on February 7 of the same year, the "General Headquarters of National Defence Force" with US army Lieutenant-General Marshall as the first commander-in-chief.*
* Army War History edited by the Army Headquarters, Vol. I, Taegu, pp. 66-68.
Along with the puppet army force a puppet naval force was formed. Under the command of Major Karl Stain of the Transport Department of the "US Military Government Office" the "Coast Defence Corps" was set up on November 10, 1945,.which was reorganized on June 15 of the ensuing year into the "Korean Coastal Guards" through US "Military Government Ordinance" No. 86.*
* Ibid., pp. 85-86.
With a view to building a puppet air force, US imperialists set up the puppet "army air force" on April 1, 1948, and reinforced it. On July 27 of the same
33
year it was renamed the "army air base force," which was again reorganized on September 13 into "army air headquarters". It was separated on October 1, the following year, from the puppet army to become the puppet air force over 1,100 strong with more than 20 planes.*
* Ibid., pp. 81-82.
As can be seen, from the first days of their occupation of south Korea the US imperialists put spurs to building a puppet army, naval and air forces for the purpose of preparing for a new war and increased the puppet aggressive armed forces on a large scale.
As a result, already as of November 16, 1946, prior to the concoction of the south Korean puppet government, the puppet armed forces had increased to 9 regiments to serve as cannon fodder for the US imperialists in their preparation for a new war. The regiments were detailed on the principle of one for each province. And in the period from the end of 1947 to the close of April of the next year the puppet armed forces grew to 5 brigades embracing 15 regiments and a separate mechanized regiment. At the same time, various military educational institutions sprang up including the "Military Academy" which was to train officers needed for enlarging the puppet aggressive armed forces. Their number increased to 10 in the period from December 1945 to June 1948. Education in the "anti-communist" idea and military exercises with American equipment were intensified as never before to oppose the northern half.*
*!bid.t pp. 70-71.
Due to the US military base policy, south Korea was rapidly reduced to a military and strategic base, a supply base for cheap cannon fodder, already in the period of military administration. This had nothing to do with the international commitment by which the US imperialists assumed no duties other than "disarming the Japanese forces in the area south of 38 degrees north latitude". It showed that they speeded up preparations for war from the beginning with a view to dominating the whole of Korea with south Korea as a stepping-stone. Taking this into consideration, the author of The Modern History of the United States wrote, "Virtually, the war made by Wall Street against the Korean people began in September 1945, almost at the time when its generals set foot in south Korea".*l and Combat of France pointed out that "now, putting all the
34
facts together", it may be "concluded that the United States had prepared for this war (Korean war-Quoter) immediately after the end of World War II".*2
*1. Hershel D. Meyer, The Modern History of the United States, Kyoto, p. 148. *2. Daily Combat, July 29, 1953.
3) Concoction of the Puppet Government in South Korea
The trend of world revolutionary developments to peace and democracy, national independence and socialism constituted a fatal blow to the aggressive policy of world domination pursued by the US imperialists who had called for "global supremacy" immediately after World War II.
Greatly alarmed by the growth of the revolutionary forces, they resorted to the policy of cold war in an attempt to find a way out of the impasse and launched an all-out reactionary offensive for world domination.
With the announcement of the "Truman doctrine", this offensive went into full force.
Provided with the background of the "anti-communist" policy which had already begun to be carried out all over the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, on March 12, 1947, at a joint conference of the Senate and the House of Representatives President Truman made public what is called the "Truman message" whose general import was to prepare for an aggressive war for the domination of the world.
In his "message" Truman said that "the free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms" and that since "the world now asks the United States to conduct its activities, holding supremacy", the United States has come to assume "fresh responsibility and duty" and its "diplomatic policy, hereafter, should be oriented in building a peaceful world (this means control over the capitalist world-Quoter)". Further, he menacingly declared that "in case peace is threatened, no matter whether directly or indirectly (this is a slander on the national liberation struggle), we regard it as affecting the national defence of the United States" and that "the United States should take an action without hesitation against the new totalitarian challenge" (this is a slander on socialism-Quoter) and "if we may falter in our leadership, we may
35
endanger the peace of the world". Thus, he publicly announced that US imperialism had become the chieftain of world imperialism and would behave as such.*
The "Truman doctrine" which was noisily advertised by the US imperialists as a "turning point in the US foreign policy" was, in essence, an aggressive programme which openly declared "cold war" against the socialist countries and proclaimed their overt intervention in the whole world under the pretext of "maintenance of peace" and "request of free nations".
It was also a declaration of war by which the US rulers announced to the whole world that they would apply the aggressive "principle" of the "Monroe doctrine" on a worldwide scale under the signboard of "the world for Americans" in place of the professed slogan of "the Western Hemisphere for Americans" which they had advocated in the past century under the same doctrine.
*Truman, Memoirs, Vol. II, Tokyo, pp. 88-89.
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who visited the United States at the call of Truman, made a notorious "anti-communist" speech at Fulton, Missouri in March 1946. He said then that "the iron curtain was drawn down from Szczecin of the Baltic Sea to Trieste of the Adriatic Sea". Thus he spoke for the foreign policy of the US imperialists. His speech was a prelude to the "Truman doctrine" which signalled the start of the march of the "anti-communist crusade" on a worldwide scale.
In a word, the "Truman doctrine" was a declaration of preparation for a new war aimed at dominating the whole world by opposing, on the basis of the "policy of strength", the socialist countries and national liberation struggle, repulsing their imperialist rivals and stepping up in an all-round way the policy of aggression and intervention.
After the announcement of the "Truman doctrine", a US plan for world supremacy which was made a policy, US imperialism intensified its counterrevolutionary offensive in all parts of the world, and its preparations for a new war entered a new stage to be promoted on a full scale.
In Asia, while giving greater political, economic and military assistance to the moribund Chiang Kai-shek clique, US imperialism mobilized all the counterrevolutionary armed forces of the Kuomintang in extending the civil war against the Chinese people. In Japan, it intensified suppression of democratic forces and, at the same time, wrought the so-called "change in the occupation
36
policy" for the stepped-up militarization of the Japanese economy while openly reviving militarist force.
A marked change took place in the aggressive policy of US imperialism toward Korea after the announcement of the "Truman doctrine". It was expressed in its full-scale manoeuvring to concoct a separate puppet government in south Korea.
From the outset, US imperialism had no intention of sincerely implementing the declaration of the Cairo Conference that called for "making Korea a free independent country".
For the US rulers Korea was useful only when it would become an advance base for their policy of world domination. Quite a long time before the end of World War II they had been particularly "interested" in the postwar settlement of the Korean question and consistently persisted in an aggressive plan for placing the whole of Korea under the "mandatory rule" of the Big Powers.*
The "mandatory rule" advocated by US imperialism was in essence one of stereotyped forms of imperialist colonial rule by which the suzerain state would keep its -hold of colonies. Its ultimate objective was to reduce Korea to its colony like the Philippines.
*!n February 1945, at the Soviet-US-British Conference in Yalta President Roosevelt declared that "for Korea to become a free independent country" a preparatory period extending for some forty years would be needed as was the case with the Philippines. He made a "proposal of mandatory rule" by the USSR, China (the Republic of China) and the US. Further, on April 12, 1945, Grew, Acting Secretary of State, also put forward a "proposal for mandatory rule" of Korea by four states-the USSR, the US, Britain and China {the Republic of China). (David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modem Korea, Vol. I, Tokyo, pp. 86-87.)
The US imperialists, however, could not but consider a new historical condition in which the balance of political forces in the world had undergone a drastic change after World War II. They could not but take into consideration the facts that they had occupied south Korea without shedding a drop of blood and that the occupation of south Korea by their army was simply out of the temporary military operational necessity of the Allied Powers.
This meant in the final analysis that the liberated Korean people themselves had a determining voice in settling the Korean question and that in disposing of the Korean question the USSR and other Allied Powers, the victor
37
nations in the war against Japan, should agree among themselves. That is why, first of all, at the international meetings on the Korean question the US tried to secure an international guarantee for complete control of Korea in the future while veiling their aggressive ambition to the utmost. President Truman betrayed such a motive of US imperialism when he said on September 18, 1945 that in order to build a free and independent state in Korea "we need time and perseverance... the joint efforts of the Korean people and the Allied Powers".*!
Truman’s statement, which was made public several months before the Conference of Three Powers’ Foreign Ministers, was aimed at settling the Korean question in the interests of US imperialism in the forthcoming international meetings. Feigning ignorance of the radical change in the political situation in liberated Korea, they intended to achieve the aim by arousing world public opinion through their false propaganda that the Koreans lacked the ability of self-government as in the past and needed much time and outside assistance to attain genuine independence.
The liberated Korean people, in fact, had the ability and enough strength to solve their problem for themselves without any outside interference and assistance. Therefore, at that time even the Western press truthfully remarked: "If only the United States’ policy is for independence of Korea, there is great possibility of its approving the practical power of Korea-the people’s commit-tees-instead of setting up the military government, and cooperating with it. In this case one may think of ultimate domination of communism, but Korea’s independence and unification might have been attained in the early days."*2
*1.E. Grant Meade, American Military Government in Korea, p. 316.
*2. Leland M. Goodrich, Korea: A Study of US Policy in the United Nations, p. 14.
In view of these facts, Truman’s statement that for independence the Koreans need "time and perseverance" and the "joint efforts with the Allied Powers" was an utter distortion of facts; it was no more than shameless talk to camouflage the aggressive ambition of the US imperialists.
Thus, the US secretly promoted the preparations for setting up a US-controlled "government" in south Korea.
In the autumn of 1945, when sending Syngman Rhee back to south Korea, who had long been imbued with the idea of "US-worship", the US State Department gave him instructions to the effect that he had to "exert all his
38
energies to establishing a government" and "this government should be under the absolute support of the United States".
MacArthur and Harriman, US Ambassador in Moscow, twaddled with one voice that "a separate government should be immediately founded in the southern part of Korea and this government be one that makes it possible for the United States to use it as her base in the continent and as the frontiers for Japan’s defence".
These facts show, in effect, that plots for establishing a servile "government" in south Korea were definitely hatched already in 1945 and that they were the outcome of the Asian policy of the US imperialists who, after the bankruptcy of their government’s policy toward China, intended to make Japan its ally and turn south Korea into a base linking the continent and a "bulwark for defending" Japan.
The US plot to set up a separate "government" in south Korea came into the open after the failure of its aggressive attempt at the Moscow Three Ministers’ Conference in December 1945.
At the conference US representative Byrnes submitted a draft "resolution" calling for the establishment of a four-power trusteeship in Korea.*
* The US draft "resolution" was to the following effect:
Firstly, foreign troops’ military administration with their "presence for more than ten years" shall be enforced until the establishment of a "trusteeship" in Korea, and this military organ shall control the political and economic life of Korea.
Secondly, until the establishment of a unified government in Korea she shall be put under the "trusteeship" of four nations-the Soviet Union, America, Britain and China (the Republic of China) for over ten years. To this end, a four-nation administration empowered to exercise administrative, legislative and juridical powers necessary for governing Korea shall be set up and the exercise of its authority and duty shall be through the instrumentality of an Executive Committee comprising supreme commissioners, and the representatives from the countries participating in this administration.
US "resolution" demanding to turn Korea into a territory under the trusteeship of the great Powers and put her under the authority and control of "supreme commissioners", was, after all, an out-and-out aggressive and shackling one because it was aimed at making it impossible for the Korean people not only to take part in the administration of their country but also to have any hope of building a unified independent and sovereign state in Korea.
39
The conference rejected the US "proposal" and adopted a positive resolution calling for the establishment of a unified democratic government in Korea as early as possible. Under these circumstances, the US imperialists launched a big political campaign for reversing the decisions of the Three Ministers’ Conference and led the situation towards justifying their plot to establish a separate "government".
Truman dealt out disciplinary punishment to Byrnes, chief representative of the US side to the Moscow Three Ministers’ Conference, as soon as he came back, for his failure to carry out his government’s intention to put the whole of Korea under the control of the United States through the conference.
Meanwhile, in south Korea Hodges lauded the so-called "anti-trusteeship" campaign of the Syngman Rhee clique as an expression of "national loyalty" and shored them up tacitly. On the other hand, he brought pressure to bear upon the democratic parties, social organizations and the people of various strata engaged in a just struggle to support the decisions of the Three Ministers’ Conference on the establishment of a unified democratic government, saying that he "is apprehensive of delaying the ultimate attainment of Korean independence".
This vulgar political campaign reflected the US imperialists’ impatience and uneasiness as they really were, and revealed their innermost ambition to sabotage the decisions of the Moscow Three Ministers’ Conference on the Korean question and to dispose of the Korean question at their discretion.
On January 3, 1946 the US Department of State made an official announcement that the United States would provide all financial and technical "aid" for the establishment of a "democratic government" in south Korea. This showed that the US government had set to work for the establishment of a separate "government" in south Korea.*]
When the January 3rd announcement aroused public opinion at home and abroad, the US Department of State used one pretext after another, by saying: "We have never said we have a plan to set up a separate government in south Korea", and "the rumour from Korea that the US army stationed in south Korea is now taking a step for transferring the administration under its occupation to the Koreans is quite groundless".*2
However, in effect, the US imperialists had already dissolved by force all the people’s committees, the genuine bodies of people’s power established on the initiative of the people in south Korea. And when the anti-US struggle of the south Korean people against their colonial rule and for the reunification and
40
independence of the homeland and for freedom and democracy gathered strength, the US imperialists tried to draw the veil of "democratic government" over the fascist "military government" in order to soothe it down.
According to an urgent report from Seoul carried by the New York Times on April 12, 1947, Hodges, Commander of the US Occupation Army in south Korea, said: "Although the United States expressed that it had no intention at all to take a unilateral measure for the establishment of a separate government in south Korea, the authorities on the spot today will continue the work of accelerating the ‘Koreanization’ of the military government by letting the Koreans make preparations for self-government. All the authority and responsibility are in the hands of the parliament and they will increase gradually."*3 His remark brought into the open the basic orientation of the US aggressive policy for establishing a separate "government" in south Korea. Acting upon this orientation, the US cooked up the south Korean "Democratic Assembly" on February 15, 1946 under the chairmanship of Syngman Rhee, a traitor to the nation and an enthusiastic US worshipper and ftunkeyist.
Then they rigged up the so-called "Legislative Assembly" on December 2, the same year, and, on June 3 the next year, renamed it the "South Korean Interim Government" and staged a farce of "transfer of administrative power", making believe that they were going to hand part of the ruling power over to the pro-American, pro-Japanese elements and national traitors.
By claiming through it to stand for the so-called "democratic government", they wanted to pacify the south Korean people’s opposition to the "military government"and, furthermore, to push ahead with the preparations for rigging up a puppet regime.
In regard to this, an AP report carried in the April 7, 1946, issue of the Japan Times said: "The US occupation authorities began to show the move to establish a virtual ‘Korean government’ in the area under the occupation of the US troops."*4
Thus, contrary to the decision of the Moscow Three Ministers’ Conference, the US imperialists’ plan to cook up a separate "government" in south Korea entered the stage of its realization.
*1.David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. I, Tokyo, p. 105. *2. Stars and Stripes, April 7, 1946. *3. New York Times, April 12, 1947. *4. Japan Times, April 7, 1946.
41
‘The move to establish a Korean government in the area under the occupation of the US troops" was shown overtly by breaking up the Soviet-US Joint Commission and illegally bringing the Korean issue to the United Nations.
In February 1947, after the First Session of the Soviet-US Joint Commission was broken up due to the US representative’s act of deliberation, the US Department of State called Syngman Rhee to the United States and told him that the Korean question would be "laid" before the United Nations to decide on "separate elections" and a "separate government" in the future and that back at home, he should develop a more positive campaign for the purpose.*i In the summer of 1947, Wedemeyer, who came to south Korea as the special envoy of the US President, reassured the puppets by saying that the Korean question would be discussed at the United Nations.
To the American rulers, the Soviet-US Joint Commission became an obstacle in the way of carrying out their established policy for setting up a separate "government" in south Korea.
That was why the US imperialists illegally brought the Korean issue to the United Nations in September 1947 in the middle of the Second Session of the Soviet-US Joint Commission (which was held from May 21 to October 26, 1947).
This was a grave act of provocation violating the international agreement on the establishment of a unified, democratic government in Korea.
Why then did the United States unilaterally wreck the Soviet-US Joint Commission and bring the Korean question to the United Nations?
It was because the US imperialists at the time did not want the emergence of a unified, democratic, independent and sovereign state in Korea but were interested in her division.
In this regard, Wedemeyer, who visited south Korea as the special envoy of the US President in the summer of 1947, wrote in his secret investigation report to the President as follows:
The US government must work out a "realistic policy of action" in Korea, with stress laid in all cases on turning Korea into a strategic base for the "protection of the US strategic interests". As for the United States, the emergence of a unified, independent democratic Korea would in the future be a great threat to its strategic interests in "Manchuria, North China, the
42
Ryukyus, Japan and, furthermore, in the Far East". Therefore, it serves the best interests of the
United States to keep Korea for ever in a state of neutrality in the military field and in order to guarantee her neutrality there is no alternative but to occupy her. For this, we should see that the US ground force continues its temporary occupation on the one hand and, on the other, should give "military aid" to south Korea to increase the puppet armed forces in a big way.*2
The so-called "neutrality" referred to by Wedemeyer meant, briefly, to place south Korea within the sphere of military activity of US imperialism and turn her into its permanent colony, into its advance base for its aggression on the continent.
Even US publications, therefore, could not but speak the truth. They wrote that in bringing the Korean question to the United Nations the US government had intended to establish a government in south Korea, which would be backed up by the United States in its attempt to seize the other half of Korea in the north of the 38th parallel as early as possible.
*1. Mun Hak Bong, Exposure of the Truth about the US Imperialist Policy of Aggression against Korea and the Real Provoker of the Civil War, pp. 40-41. *2. New York Journal and American, September 17, 1947.
As seen above, the posing of the Korean question before the United Nations was based on a reactionary purpose. It was also a violation of Article 107, Chapter XVII of the UN Charter, which under the historic conditions of those days excludes the discussion of issues of postwar mediation. It was also a violation of Paragraph 7, Article 2 of the UN Charter which prohibits the UN intervention in matters within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.
This notwithstanding, the US, abusing the dominant position it held in the UN at the time, brought up the Korean question for discussion at the Second Session of the UN General Assembly on September 23, 1947, and even prevented a Korean representative from participating in the discussion of the Korean question.
Their wicked designs to establish a separate "government" in south Korea were clearly revealed in the whole course of the discussion of the Korean question at the session.
On November 14, 1947, the US imperialists set their voting machines in the UN in motion and forced the UN General Assembly to organize the "United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea" whose function it was to "supervise" the "elections" in Korea and "the establishment of the Korean gov-
43
eminent".
However, the "United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea" was rejected by the entire Korean people. In face of this, they hurriedly took action to call the UN "Little Assembly" on February 26, 1948 and railroad a resolution on holding "elections" even only in the limited "area accessible to the commission in Korea", that is, in south Korea under US army occupation.
The resolution of the "Little Assembly" meant that the "United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea" actually assumed the mission of setting up a separate "government" in south Korea and freezing the division of Korea.
That was why the entire Korean people opposed and rejected the "United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea". Only the pro-US traitors to the nation such as Syngman Rhee and Kim Song Su were interested in setting up a US-controlled "regime" in south Korea. They clamoured for the establishment of a "government even in a single province or county, let alone the whole area south of the 38th parallel".
When this "commission" set foot in south Korea on January 8, 1948, the voices of protest and denunciation against it rent the sky and earth, and a nationwide country-saving struggle sprang up throughout south Korea on February 7.
Such being the situation, even the "commission", which was nothing more than a tool patronized by US imperialism, could not but have doubts as to the "legality" of the establishment of a separate "government" and worry about the possibility of "free elections".*
* Indian representative Menon, the then chairman of this "commission", stated: "The entire members of the commission doubted if it would be legally possible to carry out the resolution of the General Assembly only in a part of Korea.... And the entire members of the commission worried whether there was any possibility to proceed with elections in a free atmosphere and to establish a genuine national government" (Report of the "United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea," October 15, 1948).
Thus, the US government’s policy of establishing a separate "government" in south Korea not only encountered with the strong opposition of the entire Korean people but also raised a doubt about its "legality" and "possibility" in the "commission" itself which had to carry out that mission. However, the US imperialists, who do not hesitate at anything to achieve their aggressive aim, ran amuck to hold a separate "election" in an atmosphere of unprecedent-
44
ed fascist suppression and emergency alert.
On May 10, 1948, in order to hold a "free election" in south Korea, the US imperialists mobilized battleships and planes, dispatched large mobile troops heavily armed with tanks, guns and machine guns to all parts of south Korea and set up a strict cordon of police. They also had barricades put up around the polling stations and police stations and mobilized all the police and the terrorist organizations such as the "Hyangbodan" to the task of forcibly dragging out patriotic people to the "polling stations" and wantonly arresting and imprisoning the people who showed the slightest opposition.*
* James Roper, UP special correspondent who inspected the dreadful scenes of "polling stations" at that time, described in his note the real state of the "free election" as follows: "American reconnaissance planes flew overhead... and the polling stations were strictly guarded by the ‘Hyangbodan’ carrying baseball bats, and in Seoul thousands of policemen and specially appointed civilians, with the backing of the US troops, set up barricades at main points and intersections and constabularies were posted at each entrance of back alleys. Civilian guards were armed with axe handles, baseball bats and clubs, and the south Korean constabularies with US carbines. The atmosphere resembled that of a city under martial law." (Korean Central Yearbook, 1949, p. 171.)
According to a US official press report, the US aggression forces stationed in south Korea were sharply increased by some 50 per cent in only two weeks of the separate election period.
However, the south Korean people had never been daunted by any armed suppression. They waged a death-defying struggle against the treacherous separate election.
The people of Jeju Island rose up in an organized armed struggle. They gained control over the reactionary police and made the election completely invalid. In North and South Kyongsang Provinces only 10-20 per cent of the voters went to the "polling stations" under compulsion.
The south Korean workers started a general strike on May 8 to collectively boycott the "separate election" so ruinous to the nation.
The nationwide struggle of the south Korean people completely foiled the subversive May 10 separate election planned by the US imperialists.
Notwithstanding this, the US imperialists fabricated the "results" of the election and made public the "success of free elections held under the supervision of the United Nations". And they framed up a "National Assembly" on
45
May 31, 1948, and announced the establishment of the so-called government of the Republic of Korea with Syngman Rhee as "President" on August 15.
Then, at the UN General Assembly session held on December 12, 1948, they, for the purpose of "legalizing" the illegally established "ROK government", instigated the "UNTCK" to distort the fact by describing the separate government of south Korea as if it were a "just reflection of free will of the voters in this area of Korea"* i and forcibly passed a resolution calling it the "only legitimate government" for all Korea. *2
But, in fact the "ROK government" was a puppet regime concocted by the US imperialists; it was nothing but a camouflage to cloak their neo-colonialist rule and a tool faithfully carrying out their policy of aggression.
The dependent and treacherous characters of the "ROK government" found vivid expression in the orientation for its "national policy" given by US ambassador Muccio in south Korea to Syngman Rhee on August 15, 1948.
Muccio instructed that the finances and the economy of the puppet government were to be compiled and run entirely on the directives of the US Department of State and the US ambassador in south Korea and that its military affairs had to be put under the direction of MacArthur, Commander of the US Armed Forces in the Far East, in wartime and the US ambassador in south Korea in peacetime. He also said that even the affairs of "personnel" of ministerial level and the supreme authority of the "Ministry of National Defence" were within the jurisdiction of the US Department of State and the US Military Advisory Group.
Muccio’s instructions showed that the "ROK government" which had formally taken over power from the "US Military Government" was an out-and-out colonial and dependent "regime" devoid of any political sovereignty, economic independence and real military power and that it was nothing but a tool serving the US imperialists’ policy of world domination and Asian strategy.*3
*1. Taehan Sinmun, Septembers, 1947.
*2. Reference Book for Materials on South Korea, Vol. I, pp. 47-48.
*3. Mun Hak Bong, Exposure of the Truth about the US Imperialist Policy of Aggression
against Korea and the Real Provoker of The Civil War, pp. 54-55.
The establishment of the puppet regime in south Korea made it possible for the US imperialists to achieve their aggressive aim to turn south Korea into a military strategic base for their continental aggression at the cost of the entire
46
Korean people’s interests.
The objective of setting up the separate "government" in south Korea was expressed clearly in the following speech made by US State Secretary Acheson on January 23, 1950: "We established an independent sovereign state in south Korea... in cooperation with the United Nations.... We have given much aid to this state so that it can stand on its own feet, and are demanding that the Congress take measures to continuously give aid until it will be consolidated.... I think it is a more thorough defeatism to our interests in Asia and something like full madness to check the growth of this state before it firmly stands up."*
Acheson’s speech fully revealed that the establishment of the "ROK government" by the US imperialists was thoroughly based on their aggressive interests in Korea and Asia and aimed at making a more effective use of the puppet regime for the execution of their policy of aggression against Korea and Asia by giving greater "aid" to it and "consolidating" its "independence".
The US ruling circles believed that by giving "legitimacy" and "independence" to the south Korean puppet government, a mere tool of neo-colonialist rule, which was completely subjected to the United States politically, economically and militarily, they could easily accomplish their aggressive aim, namely, to perpetuate Korea’s dividion, turn south Korea into a military base for occupying the whole of Korea, into a bridgehead for conquering the Asian continent and, further, into a strategic point for world domination.
By establishing the puppet regime in south Korea they were also able to have "legal" machines and means to push ahead full scale with preparations for unleashing a civil war and occupying the whole of Korea, using that regime as a stronghold. By concluding various shackling "agreements" with the south Korean "government" and subordinating it to itself more thoroughly, the United States could make that "regime" serve as a docile tool for the execution of its foreign policy.
The Americans could, among others, achieve with ease their aggressive aim at a less cost of blood by organizing a puppet army through drafting a great mass of cheap cannon fodder in south Korea and use strategic materiel drawn from south Korea for wartime needs. Moreover, on the strength of different "agreements" they could build necessary military bases at important areas and ports of south Korea and easily turn it into a first-rate military base in Asia. In particular, the formation of the puppet government made it possible for them to cover up the above-mentioned acts of aggression with such words as "equality" and "mutual benefits" between the two governments and thus
47
deceive world public opinion.
Also in case they unleashed a war against the northern half of Korea, the US imperialists could get a helping hand from the south Korean puppets and easily organize a "march of the crusaders" for world domination in the form of "aid". Needless to say, all this was impossible in the form of "military government".
With the establishment of the south Korean puppet "government" as a momentum, the US policy of colonial subjugation towards south Korea and the preparations for an aggressive war against Korea entered a new stage.
*Dean G. Acheson, Crisis in Asia-Demoralization of UN Forces, the US State Department Library, Vol. 27, No. 556, January 23, 1950, p. 117. (The United States and the Korean War, Tokyo, p. 85.)
4) Consolidation of the Revolutionary, Democratic Base
in the Northern Half of the Country; Struggle of the
Korean People for the Independent, Peaceful
Reunification of the Fatherland
Around the time of the establishment of a puppet regime in south Korea, the nation-splitting policy and war provocation manoeuvres of the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique became more evident.
It was now quite clear that the US didn’t want Korea’s reunification and independence. It frequently committed military provocations against the northern half along the 38th parallel and kicked up a "march north" racket.
This situation made it imperative to decisively strengthen the revolutionary, democratic base established in the northern half.
Only by decisively strengthening the revolutionary, democratic base in the northern half and increasing its political, economic and military might in every way was it possible to resolutely rebuff and frustrate the US manoeuvres to split the nation and its acts of aggression and positively promote the struggle for an independent national reunification.
Discerning with his gifted insight the actual conditions right after liberation in which the Korean revolution came to assume protractedness and ardu-
48
ousness due to the occupation of south Korea by the US imperialists and their colonial policy, President Kim Il Sung set forth an original line-a line of creating a revolutionary, democratic base to convert the northern half into a powerful democratic base for driving out US imperialism and achieving national reunification and the nationwide victory of the revolution by the efforts of the Korean people themselves, and wisely led the Korean people’s struggle to carry it out.
The struggle to set up a revolutionary, democratic base of the northern half began with the founding of a revolutionary party of the working class.
The serious obstacle thrown in the path of the Korean revolution due to the occupation of south Korea by the US imperialists, also impelled us to found the Party, the General Staff of revolution, for it alone would make it possible to unite the working class and other broad popular masses and build up a powerful revolutionary force for national reunification and the nationwide victory of the revolution and thus energetically stimulate the struggle for establishing a democratic base.
On October 10, 1945, thanks to the wise guidance of President
Kim Il Sung the North Korean Communist Party was founded with the communists tempered and trained in the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle as its core and embracing communist groups that had been active in different places.
With the founding of the revolutionary Party, the Korean people acquired a powerful vanguard detachment capable of setting up a revolutionary, democratic base; it was now possible to energetically organize and mobilize the entire people of north and south Korea in the fight against US imperialism and their lackeys.
Right after its founding, the Communist Party launched a powerful struggle to strengthen itself organizationally and ideologically, and, at the same time, to win over the broad masses and enhance its leadership role.
Through the powerful struggle to rally the masses around the Party, its peripheral organizations such as the trade unions, the Peasants’ Union, the Democratic Youth League and the Democratic Women’s Union were founded within a short period. This made it possible to organize millions of the working people, and firmly lay the groundwork for a united front embracing all the patriotic forces in all walks of life.
And the work to forge a united front with the Democratic Party, the Chon-doist Chongu Party and other friendly parties made quick headway.
Thus the Democratic National United Front based on the worker-peasant
49
alliance led by the working class and embracing the broad masses of the people of all walks of life was successfully formed and the organization of forces for the implementation of the Party’s political line and the conversion of north Korea into a powerful revolutionary base was carried out speedily.
For the establishment of a revolutionary, democratic base, the work of founding a state, too, was pushed forcefully forward.
In order to crush the vicious obstructive manoeuvres of the enemies at home and abroad in good time and energetically stimulate the struggle for building a new society, President Kim Il Sung formed people’s committees, a genuine people’s organ of power, in all parts of the country and, on this basis, set up the Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea on February 8, 1946.
Thus, the question of power, the fundamental question in the revolution, was solved successfully in north Korea and this made it possible to propel the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution and the struggle for the establishment of a democratic base in the northern half in every way.
The PPCNK promulgated the Agrarian Reform Law, the Law on the Nationalization of the Major Industries, the Labour Law, the Law on the Equality of the Sexes and other democratic laws in only one or two short years and implemented them brilliantly. This led to setting up a mighty people’s democracy in the northern half.
The work of building an army, too, made headway steadily.
Basing himself on the valuable experience and assets gained in building a revolutionary armed force during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, President Kim Il Sung promoted the work energetically in pursuance of the policy on the building of a regular revolutionary army which he had set forth right after liberation.
Many anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters were directly assigned the task of building an army. They played a basic role in the work. Moreover, the Pyongyang Institute (Nov. 1945), the Central Security Cadres School (July 1946), the Security Cadres Training Centre (Aug. 1946) and others were founded to train political, military and technical cadres for the people’s armed forces.
On the basis of these preparations the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army which was founded amid the flames of the anti-Japanese armed struggle developed into the Korean People’s Army, a regular armed force.
Thanks to the regular armed force the Korean people were able to firmly
50
safeguard the gains of the revolution against all encroachments of the enemy, and the military foundations were laid for a unified independent state to be established in the future.
As a result, under the wise leadership of President Kim Il Sung the historic task of founding a Party, a state and an army was successfully carried out in the northern half of the country and the revolutionary, democratic base, a sure guarantee for the national reunification, established.
The creation of the democratic base turned the northern half of the country into a powerful bastion capable of crushing the enemy’s aggressive moves and providing a firm guarantee for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country. It rendered strength and confidence to the south Korean people in their struggle for an independent, peaceful national reunification.
The establishment of the revolutionary, democratic base came as a powerful blow to the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique who persisted in their manoeuvres for a national split and waited for a chance to pounce upon the northern half.
Frightened at the brilliant success and rapid progress made in the northern half of the country, the US imperialists became ever more obvious in their machinations to convert south Korea into a strategic base for invading the northern half and the continent.
In particular, their manoeuvre to rig up a puppet regime in south Korea became more pronounced despite the unanimous desire of the Korean people in the north and south for national reunification. This meant that the US aggression in Korea had entered a grave stage.
The prevailing situation demanded the consolidation of the revolutionary base into an impregnable one.
The consolidation of the revolutionary, democratic base presupposed the reinforcement, above all, of our political forces.
In August 1946, President Kim Il Sung founded the Workers’ Party of Korea, the united party of the working masses, through the merger of the Communist Party and the New Democratic Party for strengthening the Party, the leading force of the revolution, to the utmost and closely rallying the popular masses behind it.
The development of the Communist Party into the Workers’ Party was an epoch-making event in expanding and strengthening our political forces.
The founding of the Workers’ Party further consolidated the political alliance between the working class, the peasant masses and the working intel-
51
lectuals. This led the revolution in the northern half of the country to a higher stage, that is, the stage of the socialist revolution. It also made it possible to successfully carry out the work of strengthening the democratic base and wage a more dynamic struggle for the reunification and independence of the country,
In building up the political forces of the democratic base, an ideological revolution was vigorously promoted among the working people.
A general ideological mobilization movement for building the country was initiated by President Kim Il Sung. As an ideological struggle to do away with obsolete ideas remaining in the minds of the working people and equip them with a new ideology, this was of great significance in strengthening the political forces.
The ideological struggle aimed at liquidating survivals of obsolete ideas and outmoded ways of life found among the working people was waged in close combination with economic construction. Hence the movement was a great ideological transformation movement for a new country and a new society. At the same time, it was a patriotic movement of the entire masses that was closely combined with economic construction.
The vigorous promotion of the ideological struggle to remould the ideological consciousness of the working people under the wise leadership - of President Kim Il Sung forged a closer unity and cohesion of the entire people and strengthened the political forces further.
For the sustenance of the political forces, work was conducted to strengthen the people’s government, a powerful weapon for the revolution and construction.
The Party set forth the policy of legally consolidating the people’s government through a nationwide democratic election and developing it on a new basis. In line with this policy the first historic democratic elections of provincial, city and county people’s committees were carried out successfully at the close of 1946.
On the basis of these historic elections, the Congress of the Provincial, City and County People’s Committees was held in Pyongyang in February 1947. The congress formed the North Korean People’s Committee.
This committee, which was a powerful weapon for the socialist revolution and construction, strove to carry out the tasks of the period of transition to socialism and to develop the national economy according to plan.
In order to consolidate the revolutionary, democratic base, the work of increasing our economic potential was vigorously forwarded while strengthen-
52
ing the political forces.
President Kim II Sung clarified the fundamentals of the most precise economic policy and the basic orientation of economic construction for our Party for the early stage of the transitional period and laid a line on the building of an independent national economy for the first time in the country’s history, basing himself upon the economic programme formulated in the Ten-Point Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"To build an independent democratic state, an independent economic base must be built without fail, and to lay this base, the national economy must be developed rapidly. Without an independent economic base we can neither achieve independence, nor build a state and maintain our existence." (Kim Il Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 3, pp. 97-98.)
The line of building an independent national economy was the most revolutionary line of economic construction for ensuring the country’s independence, prosperity and development and further strengthening the revolutionary, democratic base of the northern half of the country economically, thereby building up a sovereign independent country, prosperous and powerful.
According to the line, a dynamic struggle was waged to reconstruct and develop the national economy in such a way that its independent foundations were laid. As a result, the National Economic Plan for 1947, the first of its kind in the history of our country, was fulfilled with credit. This was followed by the successful carrying out of the National Economic Plan for 1948.
With the fulfilment of the two plans, industrial output grew by 53.3 per cent in 1947 and 117.9 per cent in 1948 as against that of 1946. And the proportion of the state sector in the gross industrial output value increased drastically.
Great success was also registered in agriculture. During the plans, grain output in the northern half far surpassed the level of 1939, the peak year under Japanese imperialist rule, and the northern half of the country was converted into an area self-sufficient in food.
Thanks to the successful economic construction, the democratic base of the northern half was further consolidated economically.
A vigorous struggle was waged to fortify the revolutionary, democratic base in the northern half militarily simultaneously with its political and economical consolidation.
The young Korean People’s Army grew to become a steeled revolutionary
53
armed force prepared both politico-ideologically and in military techniques and capable of crushing imperialist aggressors at all times in any circumstance.
As can be seen, under the wise leadership of President Kim Il Sung a revolutionary, democratic base was established firmly in the northern half of the country in a short time after liberation, and the Korean people were now able to carry on a vigorous struggle to achieve the reunification and independence of the country, frustrating the nation-splitting policy and aggressive manoeuvres of the US aggressors and their cat’s-paws.
The struggle of the Korean people for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country mounted with greater intensity in the face of the ever more obvious nation-splitting policy of the US imperialists who schemed to rig up a separate government in south Korea.
To tide over the danger of territorial division and national split created by the US imperialists’ manoeuvre for "separate elections" and "separate government", President Kim Il Sung elucidated the Party’s basic policy of reunifying the country independently by peaceful means and on democratic principles and set forth the policy of founding a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea through nationwide democratic elections, instead of setting up a separate government in south Korea.
In his historic 1948 New Year Address, in his report to the Second Congress of the North Korean Workers’ Party in March 1948 and in his speech at the 25th Session of the Central Committee of the North Korean Democratic National United Front entitled For the Reunification and Independence and Sovereignty of Korea against the Elections for the Reactionary Separate Government of South Korea and others, President
Kim Il Sung elucidated the policy of independent national reunification by the establishment of an all-Korea central united government through elections to a supreme legislative body for the whole of Korea representing the will of the entire Korean people.
Beginning with February 1948, a nationwide discussion was held on the draft Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to be adopted by the all-Korea supreme legislative body. In April the Joint Conference of Representatives of the North and South Korean Political Parties and Social Organizations was held in Pyongyang. This was an active and positive measure to oppose and frustrate the US imperialists’ plot for a separate "election" in a nationwide movement.
The April Joint Conference was attended by representatives from 56 political parties and social organizations in north and south Korea including repre-
54
sentatives of the middle-of-ihe-road forces in south Korea and Kim Ku and other bigoted right-wing nationalists there who had been dead set against communism.
Though their political views and beliefs were not alike, all the representatives present at the conference unanimously and wholeheartedly supported and approved the policy of independent, peaceful reunification set forth by President Kim Il Sung. The conference adopted a resolution calling for frustrating the separate election ruinous to the nation by the united efforts of all the patriotic, democratic forces in north and south Korea, driving all the foreign troops out of Korea and building a unified sovereign independent state by the Korean people themselves.
The historic joint conference was a signal victory for President
Kim Il Sung’s policies of national reunification and united front. It also was the brilliant fruition of his absolute authority and prestige as well as his great magnanimity.
Following the joint conference, the entire north and south Korean people completely foiled the "May 10" separate elections foreboding national ruin through a nationwide save-the-nation struggle.
Nonetheless, the impudent US imperialists cooked up what they called election results, and set up a traitorous regime in south Korea. This confronted the Korean people with the task of laying bare the illegality of the "separate elections" to make them null and void and of setting up as early as possible a genuine united democratic central government representing the will and interests of the entire Korean people.
Drawing on the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses that had grown in the struggle against the "separate elections" and on the broad revolutionary forces in north and south Korea rallied firmly around the Party, President Kim Il Sung gave wise guidance to the struggle to carry out the Party’s political line without delay, the line of founding a Democratic People’s Republic.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"We must immediately establish a supreme legislative body of all Korea, which represents the will of the Korean people, and put through the Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. We must not establish a separate but an all-Korea government consisting of representatives of the political parties and social organizations of both north and south Korea."
With the founding of the DPRK, the task to establish a unified central government representing the will and interests of the entire Korean people
55
could now be realized.
A general election was held in August 1948 throughout north and south Korea to found a united Democratic People’s Republic.
In the southern half of the country, 77.52 per cent of all the voters took part in the election in spite of harsh suppression and strict cordon by the US imperialists and their lackeys, the Syngman Rhee clique, and in the northern half, where all the political freedoms were ensured, 99.97 per cent of all the voters took part in it.
On the basis of the brilliant results of the general election held in north and south Korea, the historic First Session of the Supreme People’s Assembly was held in Pyongyang in September 1948. The session adopted the Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and proclaimed before the whole world the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the only legitimate government for the whole of Korea.
Reflecting the unanimous will of the entire Korean people of the north and south, the First Session of the SPA appointed President Kim Il Sung Head of State of the DPRK.
The founding of the DPRK with Comrade Kim Il Sung at the head was a shining victory won in the struggle to build a unified, sovereign and independent, prosperous and strong state.
The birth of the DPRK enabled our people to extricate themselves once and for all from the bitter fate of a ruined nation. They made their appearance on the new arena of history under the banner of a full-fledged independent and sovereign state and entered the international arena on a par with the peoples of all large and small countries.
The founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea provided the Korean people with a powerful weapon for revolution and construction. It ensured the decisive superiority of the revolutionary forces over the counterrevolutionary forces on a nationwide scale and made it possible to promote the struggle for the reunification and independence of the country in its new phase.
With the founding of the DPRK, the illegal nature of the puppet regime was brought to light before the whole world and the regime itself was completely isolated from the masses of the people, and a powerful, sovereign independent state, a reliable citadel of peace, appeared in the East.
This was a mortal blow to the aggressive war policy of the US imperialists who wanted to use south Korea as a supply base for incursion on the continent and escalate aggressive war in the whole of Korea and then in the conti-
56
nent.
That was why the US imperialists and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique were bent on preparations for a civil war, while trying to lower the prestige of the Republic and viciously carrying on offensive manoeuvrings to overthrow the government of the Republic.
As a result the Korean people were faced with the urgent task of struggle-to frustrate the US imperialists and their lackeys’ machinations for civil war and accomplish the historic cause of national reunification.
57
2. Undisguised Preparation for an Aggressive "March North" War
1) Economic Crisis in the United States
2)
The US imperialists stepped up full-scale preparations for the war of aggression on Korea after rigging up the puppet regime in south Korea.
This affected the serious economic crisis in the United States. The US economy had recovered somewhat from recession from 1947 to 1948 by reaping excessive profits in the Second World War and sacrificing the interests of the countries aided under the "Marshall Plan". But towards the end of 1948 it was plunged again into an overproduction crisis, incurable malady inherent in capitalism.
This economic crisis in the United States was a natural product of the capitalist system. In capitalist society economic crisis and economic chaos come periodically because of anarchy of production based on private ownership of the means of production. This is an unwritten law. The United States could not be immune to it though it had made such excessive wartime profits.
Its 1948-1949 economic crisis in particular assumed an ever more serious and catastrophic nature in the vortex of the general crisis of capitalism that came after the Second World War.
The US imperialists put the Western capitalist countries under their tight political and economic control by dint of the "Marshall Plan" or what is called the European Recovery Program. They could enjoy economic recovery for a definite period at the sacrifice of these countries.
The US imperialists blustered: "It is this plan that has saved Europe from recession... from communist fetters." But these words soon lost weight.
Those countries which accepted the "Marshall Plan" had to suffer from a severe dollar famine, as their trade deficit swelled from year to year because of the unilateral trade the US imperialists forced upon them.
58
In the trade balance of the 16 West European countries that accepted the "Marshall Plan" the excess of imports over exports ran into 8,600 million dollars in 1947. This figure jumped to 9,500 million dollars in 1948. In the final analysis, the "Marshall Plan" resulted in upsetting the trade of the capitalist world and further weakening the purchasing power of the capitalist world market. Consequently, the United States encountered a grave marketing difficulty despite the artificial increase of its exports. It had to cut down its exports to European countries from day to day.
The persistent containment policy against socialist countries further aggravated the market problem of the capitalist world.
US imperialism forced the countries receiving its economic and military aid to cooperate in laying an embargo on the export of war supplies to the "countries within the sphere of communist influence". This was a string attached to the "aids", aimed at inveigling them into its "containment" policy and "anti-communist" policy towards socialist countries. Subsequently COCOM (Coordinating Committee for Export to Communist Area) was formed with the 15 aid-recipient countries in November 1949, and an embargo was put on the export of 300 kinds of goods, labelled as strategic materials.
The "containment" policy against socialist countries was an important factor behind the worsening economic situation of the capitalist countries which were undergoing marketing difficulties after the war because of the disintegration of the single capitalist world market and the loss of the vast market in colonies.
As a result, the capitalist market of the world and the US sphere of export of capital and commodities showed a sharper shrinkage.
Due to the above-mentioned factors, the US economy, swollen to the full, now had to undergo an overproduction crisis.
Starting towards the end of 1948, the crisis swept the light industry first and then various branches of the heavy industry. Its wave reached the steel industry in March 1949.
Due to the crisis prices slumped and investments in the manufacture of machines and equipment began decreasing sharply. In August 1949 the price indices dropped to 152 from 169.5 in the corresponding month of the previous year (taking the 1935-1939 index as 100).
The investment in equipment of industrial branches as a whole dropped by 13.4 per cent (1,300 million dollars) in the first quarter of 1949 as against the corresponding period of the foregoing year. Industrial output began falling
59
from December 1948 and showed a decrease of 17 per cent in the eight months that followed. The amount of cotton consumed in the light industry diminished by some 50 per cent from March 1948 to July 1949.
This left a huge "surplus" in labour power, the number of the unemployed soaring to 6 million.*
*According to the data officially released by the US government, the figure of the unemployed stood at 1,642,000 in October 1948. It shot up to 4,095,000 in July 1949 and 4,684,000 in February 1950.
The US Electric Workers Trade Union officially announced that its unemployed numbered 6 million. (Henri Claude, Historical Analysis of US Imperialism, Tokyo, p. 295.)
The profits of US monopolies amounted to 36,600 million dollars in September 1948. This figure dropped to 34,500 million dollars in December and to 28,400 million dollars in March 1949.
The following table shows the fluctuation of production in key branches of the economy.
TABLE OF PRODUCTION INDICES DURING THE 1948-1949 CRISIS* (The 1935-1939 index=100)
CLASSIFICATIO UNIT 1948 1949 INCREASE (+) DECREASE (-) %
1. Production and
transport
General index 192 175 -8.9
Iron manufacture 208 169 -19
Machine 276 233 -16
Textile 170 141 -17
Freight car 1 million 42.7 35.9 -16
2. Agriculture
Income of tillers 1,000 mill-
ion dollars 16.7 13.8 -17
3. Exports
Total exports 1,000 mill-
ion dollars 12.6 12 -3
Farm produce 1 million 2.8 (*The 2.5 (The -12
tons latter half) latter half)
Automobile 1,000 440 230(*1950 -35
4. Unemployed 1 million 2.66 4.48 +69
(*Feb. 1949)
*(lbitL, pp. 294-97.)
60
This table shows that neither the fraudulent "Marshall Plan" nor the "cold war", intensified under the notorious "Truman doctrine", helped the US imperialists to tide over the catastrophic crisis at home and abroad.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"In an attempt to find a way out of this crisis in the capitalist system, the US imperialists began to prepare for a new world war. To that end, they are carrying on a hysterical arms race, militarizing the economies of their dependent countries, inciting war psychosis, stepping up propaganda against the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China and the other People’s Democracies, and are trying to ignite war wherever possible." (Kim Il Sung, Works, Eng.ed., Vol. 7, p. 331.)
The monstrous US imperialists desperately tried to find a way out of their economic crisis in the preparation for and provocation of another world war. They calculated that nothing else than a "hot war" and a "war economy" could deliver them from the devastating economic crisis.
"Truman’s foreign policy was primarily aimed at creating a war boom and keying up tension," and "Washington regarded peace as a sort of noose".*i
The US monopolistic plutocrats needed an injection of "camphor" to keep themselves alive. As they expected, "there was every reason to believe that the Administration stood ready with another big needle to inject new life in the economy".*2 They urged the American ruling circles to begin a new war.
An aggressive war had always been a "savior" for monopoly capitalists floundering in crisis. The US big businessmen demanded "a war for prosperity" in an effort to get out of the overproduction crisis. They had a keen appetite for another exorbitant profit that would come from increased orders for goods of war when it broke out. On this, the British magazine, Economist commented: "The United States needed a contributor to overcoming the crisis. She found it unavoidable to start a war."
The reactionary rulers of the United States made up their minds to rescue the monopoly capitalists from the crisis. They put a spur to new war preparations, stepping up the fascistization of various systems at home and, at the same time, feverishly carrying on militarization of the economy and arms drive in order to bring about a war boom.
The intensified arms drive afforded glaring evidence of the US imperialists’ new war policy.
They gingered up the arms expansion on such a large scale not known in American history since 1948 when signs of crisis started gathering force.
61
Listed below are the military expenditures lavished by the US government on the preparations for another war in those days.
BUDGET FOR MILITARY EXPENDITURE (Unit: One Million Dollars)
Fiscal year military Budget /Budgetary items 1947-1948 (Settlement) 1948-1949 (Budget) 1949-1950 (Budget)
National defence 10,914 14,700 15,900
Atomic energy 466 632 725
Aviation 136 194 256
Marine transport 183 152 182
Total 11,709* 15,678 17,063
· This material was based on Truman’s "message" dated January 10, 1949. (Historical Analysis of US Imperialism, Tokyo, p. 278.) This figure should be \},699-Ed.
As seen from the table the US imperialists earmarked over 11,700 million dollars of military expenses for the fiscal year 1947-1948. Their budgetary military expenditures for the fiscal years 1948-1949 and 1949-1950 ran as high as 15,678 million and 17,006.3 million dollars respectively. This was an increase of over 33 per cent and 45 per cent as compared with the fiscal year 1947-1948.
Massive arms expansion and a war of aggression alone would inject a shot in the arm of the US plutocrats sinking in the crisis and bring a business uplift to the "death merchants".
In January 1952 a defeated General Van Fleet said:"Korea has been a blessing. There had to be a Korea here or somewhere else in the world."*3 This statement was a naked revelation of the policy of aggression and war pursued by the US government. It was an answer to the question-what drove the US imperialists to ignite war in 1950.
Representing the interests of the US monopolistic plutocrats who craved for a war boom, the American rulers schemed to "chase the ghost of the depression that had been haunting business in the US" and accord the
62
monopoly capitalists a "blessing" by starting an aggressive war in Korea or elsewhere in the world, and designated Korea as a theatre for execution of this scheme, taking into account her specific political and economic features.
Timing with the economic crisis in the United States, the US imperialists became frank in their preparations for a war of aggression on Korea.*4
*1.I.F. Stone, The Hidden History of the Korean War. (Japanese ed.. Vol. II, pp. 141-43.) *2. New York Journal of Commerce, May 15. 1950.
*3. UP dispatch from the US Eighth Army Headquarters, New York Journal and American, January 19, 1952.
*4. The American scholar, Hershel D. Meyer, referring to the motive of the US ruling circles in starting the aggressive war, wrote that the complicated question of how to ward off the imminent collapse of the Syngman Rhee regime and various other factors increased the whim of Wall Street to open actual war in the spring of 1950. He added that the first factor compelled them to stick to the special area called Korea and other factors representing the aspects of the general crisis of capitalism steered them to an ordinary war (The Modern History of the United States, p. 156). The cheers given by the US plutocrats when the US imperialists actually started the Korean war afford a glimpse of the backstage of the war. The US military expenditure swelled by 15,500 million dollars on the day of the outbreak of the Korean war, by 10,500 million dollars in July and 16,800 million dollars in December. The orders placed by the US government for war supplies amounted to the colossal sum of 5,000 million dollars on a monthly average. The whole sum of these dollars went into the pockets of a few big businessmen. (New York Journal and American, January 9, 1952.)
The rate of profits earned by the seven big industries in close relation with the arms production showed a sharp rise; it shot up by 88 per cent in the engineering industry and by 61 per cent in oil products in the third quarter of 1950 as against the corresponding period of the previous year. (Newsweek, November 12, 1950.) Hence the US big businessmen shouted "Hurrah for the war boom!" "Hurrah for war inflation!1’ Fawning upon them the reptile press wrote: ‘The Korean enterprise revived the economy" and "The Korean outbreak chased the ghost of depression that had been haunting business in the US since the end of World War II." (The Modern History of the United States, Kyoto, p. 179.)
63
2) Puppet Army Organized, Its Equipment Improved
"ROK Army" Organized
Preparing for a new war, the United States began above all with a large-scale expansion of the south Korean puppet army.
In his Memoirs, Truman wrote:
"In the spring of 1948 the National Security Council reported to me that we could do one of three things: we could abandon Korea; or we could continue our military and political responsibility for the country; or we could extend to a Korean government aid and assistance for the training and equipping of their own security forces.... The Council recommended, however, that we choose the last course, and I gave my approval." (Truman, Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 231.)
This quotation reveals the basic content of the US policy toward south Korea, which was recommended by the US National Security Council and approved by Truman at a time when the separate election and subsequent establishment of a puppet regime in south Korea were placed on the order of the day. As Truman had written, the US policy toward south Korea was to establish a separate government and, on this basis, to offer greater military aid and extensively expand the armed forces trained and equipped the American way so as to "prevent a breakdown of the infant nation".
Upon occupying south Korea, the US rigged up puppet armed forces on the plea of "national defence." Fabricating the puppet regime called the "Republic of Korea", it got to work in real earnest to form regular armed forces in south Korea.
Considering it a prerequisite for expansion of the south Korean puppet army to seize its command and place it under their strict control, the US imperialists first concluded a military agreement with the Syngman Rhee puppet government to obtain that prerogative.
Hodges, Commander of the US Armed Forces occupying south Korea, signed the "Transitional Temporary Status of Forces Agreement on Military Affairs and Security" with Syngman Rhee on August 24, 1948.
64
The keynote of this agreement was to make the commander of the US armed forces retain command of the puppet army under the plausible pretext of "gradually transferring" the right of control to the south Korean "garrison", "coastal guards", police force and military bases and establishments to the puppet government and to "legalize" the prolonged presence of the US troops in south Korea.
The five-article agreement provided that the commander of the US armed forces should "continue to organize, train and equip the south Korean security forces" (Article 1), hold even the "right to control their operations" (Article 2). and control the "important areas and establishments (harbours, hospitals, railways, communications and airdromes) in south Korea which he deems necessary" (Article 3).
"Transitional" and "temporary" mentioned in this agreement were no more than an eyewash for the Korean people.
It was an aggressive "agreement" that provided the US army with unrestricted command over the south Korean puppet army to fulfil the nefarious aim of the US imperialists for stupendous expansion of the aggressive armed forces in south Korea before starting a war in Korea.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"From the outset of their occupation the US imperialists started founding the ‘National Defence Force’ with the police force and terrorists as its pivot in preparation for invasion against the northern half of the Republic."
Upon concluding the "Status of Forces Agreement", the US imperialists buckled down to the work of rigging up the "ROK army" and expanding the puppet armed forces in a big way.
After knocking the "Republic of Korea" into shape the US imperialists immediately transferred to south Korea the US-made 105-mm guns, 57-mm guns, planes and war vessels plus a huge quantity of Japan-made weapons they had taken over at the time of the disarmament of the Japanese troops. On this basis, on September 1, 1948, they proclaimed the founding of the "ROK army" as the regularized puppet armed forces, with the "Korean Garrison" ("South Korean National Defence Force" was renamed "Korean Garrison" in 1946) and "coastal guards" as its main body.
Earlier, in August 1947, Syngman Rhee blared forth that the first and foremost task was to "make the ROK army 100,000 strong" with US "aid".*! As pointed out by the US army paper Stars and Stripes, the US rulers also deemed it necessary to foster the "well-armed 100,000 troops at an early date
65
in order to occupy north Korea"*2 and set it as a cardinal task of the puppet government to build up the 100,000-strong "crack units".
The expansion of the "ROK army" assumed full scale in south Korea to meet this demand of the US government.
For a "better line-up" of the "ROK army" following its fabrication, the Syngman Rhee clique drew into it Kim Sok Won, Ryu Sung Ryol and many other ex-officers of the Japanese aggressor army plus O Kwang Son, Ri Ho.Ri Hyong Sok, Yun Chi Wang and other daredevils who had taken the lead in killing patriotic-minded people at the time of the US military government.
Meanwhile, on November 30, 1948 they railroaded a "bill on orgaizing the ROK army" through the puppet "National Assembly" and instituted various services and arms such as infantry, cavalry, artillery, sapper, communications, armored units, supply department, paymaster’s department, inspection section, medical corps, military police and air force. At the same time, they organized seven infantry regiments (16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st, 23rd and 25th), "reconnaissance corps of the army special unit", "army special unit", "guerrilla battalion", "Horim unit", army reserve unit, communication corps and many other "special units". On May 12, 1949, the existing brigades were reorganized into divisions. On June 20 the 7th and 8th Divisions were newly formed. With this, the ground force of the "ROK army" added up to eight divisions-the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Divisions and the Metropolitan Division.*3
* 1. In a welcome party held in honour of Wedemeyer who visited south Korea as a special
envoy of Truman at the end of August 1947, Syngman Rhee said that if the United States
gave him 500 million won as "aid", he would train a "ROK army" 100,000 strong with
some of that money. (Rodong Sinmun, July 26, 1949.)
*2. Star sand Stripes, Septembers, 1948.
*3. Army War History edited by the south Korean puppet Army Headquarters, Vol. I,
Taegu, pp. 72-74.
66
LIST OF ORGANIZATION OF DIVS. OF GROUND FORCE OF "ROK ARMY"
(As of June 1949)
DIVS. DATE OF ORGANIZATION REGS. BELONGING TO DIVS. DATE OF ORGANIZATION OF REGS.
Army Headquarters Special unit Air force command Armory Clothing depot Dec. 6, 1948 Sept. 13, 1948 Aug. 1, 1949
IstDiv. Organized as brigade on Dec. 1, 1947 Reorganized into div. on May 12, 1949 llth Reg. 12th Reg. 13th Reg. May 4, 1948 May 1, 1948 May 4, 1948
2nd Div. Organized as brigade on Dec. 1, 1947 Reorganized into div. on May 12, 1949 5th Reg. 16th Reg. 25th Reg. Jan. 19(29), 1946 Nov. 20, 1948 Jun. 20, 1949
3rd Div. Organized as brigade on Dec. 1, 1947 Reorganized into div. on May 12, 1949 22nd Reg. 23rd Reg. Organized as 6th Reg. on Feb. 18, 1946, and renamed 22nd Reg. on Apr. 15, 1949 Jun.20, 1949
5th Div. Organized as brigade on Apr. 29, 1948 Reorganized into div. on May 12, 1949 15th Reg. 20th Reg. May 4, 1948 Organized as 4th Reg. on Feb. 15, 1946, and renamed 20th Reg. on Nov. 20, 1948
6th Div. Organized as brigade on Apr. 29, 1948 Reorganized into div. on May 12, 1949 7th Reg. 8th Reg. 19th Reg. Feb. 7, 1946 Apr. 1, 1946 Nov. 20, 1948
7th Div. Organized as brigade on Jan. 7, 1948 Reorganized into div. in Jun. 1949 3rd Reg. 9th Reg. 1st Reg. Feb. 26, 1946 Nov. 16, 1946 Jan. 15, 1946
8th Div. Jun.20, 1949 10th Reg. 21st Reg. May 1, 1948 Feb. 1, 1949
Metropolitan Div. Jun. 20, 1949 2nd Reg. 18th Reg. 17th Reg. Cavalry Reg. Artillery corps Feb. 28, 1946 Nov. 20, 1948 Nov. 20, 1948 (placed under direct control of Army Headquarters on Marl, 1950) Jan. 1, 1948
(Army War History edited by the Army Headquarters, Vol. 1, items 1,3,4,5,6 under appendix 9.)
67
The regiments of the ground force of the south Korean puppet army grew in number; from 16 (15 infantry regiments and one independent cavalry regiment) before fabrication of the "Republic of Korea" to 22 regiments, with the exception of the units of special arms.
This fact showed that the American rulers regarded the rapid expansion of the puppet army as one of the most important issues, following the establishment of the "Republic of Korea" in south Korea and that they were stepping up war preparations for occupying even north Korea.
While expanding the south Korean puppet army, the US aggressors formed its backbone with those who had served in the Japanese "Imperial Army" as officers in the past and had committed indelible crimes against the country and the nation.
When the "ROK army" was rigged up, the US aggressors appointed Chae Pyong Dok, a graduate of Japanese Military Academy and ill-famed ex-major of the Japanese aggressor army who had taught at the Japanese Ordnance School, as Chief of the General Staff of the puppet army, Ri Ung Jun, a pro-Japanese lackey who had fled to the south from the northern half of the Republic, as Chief of the General Staff of the ground force, and Jong II Gwon, a graduate from the puppet Manchukuo Cadet School and Japanese Military Academy, as Assistant Chief of the General Staff of the ground force. They also placed the newly reorganized divisions under the command of such pro-Japanese and pro-US elements as Kim Sok Won (First Division commander), a heinous pro-Japanese stooge who, as colonel of the Japanese aggression army, had worked more zealously than anyone else in the "punitive operations" against the anti-Japanese national-liberation movement of the Korean people, and Ryu Sung Ryol (Second Division commander) and Ri Hyong Gun (8th Division commander). Even non-commissioned officers, let alone the middle-ranking and junior officers, were recruited from among the human dregs who had served Japanese imperialism in the days of its colonial rule.*
*With regard to the make-up of the "ROK army". Collection of Army War History published in Japan wrote: "The composition of the ROK army men is quite diverse. There are generals who graduated from the Japanese Military Academy-Ryu Sung Ryol (36th). Chae Pyong Dok (49th), Ri Jong Chan (49th), Kim Jong Ryol (54th), Jong II Gwon (corresponding to 55th), Yu Je Hung (55th), Ri Hyong Gun (56th) and Pak Jong Hi (corresponding to 57th). They formed the pivot of the south Korean army. General Song Yo Chan is an ex-volunteer for the Japanese army. Generals like Kim Jong O, Jang To Yong,
68
Pack In Yop and Han Sin had joined the Japanese army as student-volunteers. The above-mentioned generals may as well be classified as the pro-Japanese group. "Moreover, those who had been conscripted into the Japanese army, the ex-policemen and those who had fled to south Korea from north Korea after the Second World War were enlisted as the rank and file. It is repoited that a greater part of non-commissioned officers have the records of service in the Japanese army." (Collection of Army War History edited by the Society for Study and Dissemination of Army War History, Vol. I, Tokyo, p. II.)
The US rulers and the Syngman Rhee clique expanded the air force in a big way along with the ground force of the puppet army.
On September 13, 1948, soon after the manufacture of the "Republic of Korea", the US imperialists reorganized the former air base unit into the air base command for the massive expansion of the puppet air force and formed new flying corps and air base units. On December 1, 1948, the "Korean Garrison Air Force Command" was reorganized into the "Army Air Force Command". On October 1 the following year the air force was made independent of the ground force. To cope with the swollen setup, they instituted the Air Force Officers School on January 14, 1949 in Kimpho County, Kyonggi Province, and trained the hard-core elements of the puppet air force. They formed even "female air force training corps" and gave training to south Korean women. *i As of June 24, 1950, the puppet air force had its base units in Kimpho, Youido, Suwon, Kunsan, Taegu, Kwangju (South Jolla Province) and Jeju. As for the composition of its men, the puppet air force kept some 400 who had served three years or more in foreign air force units (overwhelming majority are Japanese). Of them about 100 were pilots.*2
*1. History of Air Force edited by Supervisors Office for Information and Education of
Air Force Command, Vol. I, Seoul, p. 64.
*2. Army War History edited by the Army Headquarters, Vol. I. Taegu, pp. 83-84.
The US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique reinforced the puppet navy in a big way as well.
With the fabrication of the "Republic of Korea",the US imperialists reorganized the former "coastal guards" into the naval force and increased its numerical strength by whipping together many ex-officers of the Japanese navy. On May 5, 1949 they newly organized the marine corps to reinforce the
69
navy. Even according to the watered-down figures released by them, the numerical strength of the puppet navy totalled as many as 7,715 as of June 24, 1950. (Of which 1,241 belonged to the marine corps.) Various kinds of naval vessels were transferred to the puppet navy by the US armed forces. Naval bases were built in Inchon, Pusan, Mokpho, Ryosu and Jinhae.*
Mrmv War History edited by the Army Headquarters, Vol. 1, Taegu, p. 86.
The large-scale expansion of the puppet ground, naval and air forces* was a fair barometer of the US policy geared to a "hot war" from "cold war". It throws a revealing light on the new war preparations stepped up vigorously in Korea by the United States after the autumn of 1948.
*The curtailed data made public by the south Korean puppet clique concerning the numerical strength of the "ROK army" at the time of war provocation are as follows: Ground force-8 divisions 67,416 strong
Supporting units 27,558 strong
Total 94,974 strong Naval force-7,715 strong Air force-! ,899 strong Marine corps-1,166 strong Sum total-105,754 strong. (Civil War in Korea, p. 208.)
The figure added up at least to 160,000 if over 50,000 policemen armed and trained after an American fashion like the "ROK army" were counted.
In May 1951 when the Korean war was raging, US State Secretary Acheson referred to the equipment and numerical strength the south Korean puppet army had had on the eve of the Korean war, in his statement on the publication of the Wedemeyer Reports. He said: "...the army was completely outfitted like American infantry. About a half of the police force and coastal guards were equipped with US-made handy weapons and carbines and the rest with the Japan-made equipment of similar types. By the time of the start of the attack these security forces had grown as strong as 150,000 under our aid." (UP, May 2, 1951, Washington.)
The "ROK army" equipped with American weapons was a tool of aggression that served US imperialism in every way in its war policy which had nothing to do with the interests of the country and the nation.
At a press interview on June 5, 1950 Roberts, head of the "US Military
70
Advisory Group in Korea", described the "ROK army" as a "fine watchdog over the US investments"* and as a "force representing the maximum results at a minimum cost". This fully reveals the mercenary character of the "ROK army" as a tool of the US warmongers for aggressive wars.
*China Weekly Review, June 5, 1950, Shanghai.
Sebald, chief of Public Relations Division of the MacArthur Command, did not try to conceal the mercenary character of the "ROK army". He wrote: Roberts, head of "US Military Advisory Group in Korea", had often visited Japan, accompanied by Sin Song Mo, Minister of National Defence of the south Korean puppet regime, and Chae Pyong Dok, Chief of the General Staff, and other brass hats of the "ROK army" and huddled with the Japanese rulers before the outbreak of the Korean war. There Roberts had bragged of the "invincible” combat capacity of the "ROK army", calling it "my troops" or "my officers and men". Further, Sebald disclosed that Sirt Song Mo who had risen to Minister of National Defence of the south Korean puppet government from captain of a British merchant ship at a bound kowtowed before Roberts and the Japanese rulers, saying. "Please call me captain." (Refer to Sebald’s Memoir on Diplomacy of Occupied Japan.)
The "ROK army" was not only a "watchdog" of the United States but also a tool of US colonial rule for cracking down on the south Korean people’s patriotic, anti-US national salvation struggle at the point of the bayonet.
The anti-popular, anti-national character of the "ROK army" found expression, first of all, in the fact that its backbone consisted of traitors to the nation who had pledged their faith to Japanese imperialism, the sworn enemy of the Korean people, and served in the Japanese "Imperial Army" as officers. In fact, they acted as ruthless stranglers of the south Korean people’s righteous patriotic struggle.*
* The "ROK army" played an anti-popular and anti-national role from the first day of its
emergence as a tool of US colonial rule over south Korea.
When the people of Jeju Island rose in the struggle against the ruinous separate election in
April 1948, just before the fabrication of the puppet regime in south Korea, the US imperialist
occupationists brought the "National Defence Force", "coastal guards" and even puppet air
force into action and massacred the patriotic people, putting down their struggle harshly.
(Army War History edited by the Army Headquarters, Vol. I, Taegu, pp. 85-87.)
Further, the US imperialists threw large units of the puppet ground, naval and air forces to
the slaughtering of many people when the patriotic-minded soldiers and people mutinied
71
in Ryosu and Sunchon in October 1948. right after the founding of the "ROK army".
By organizing the "ROK army", the United States prepared the military strength to suppress the south Korean people’s anti-US, save-the-nation struggle at the point of the bayonet, to preserve its colonial rule and ignite an aggressive war. According to John Gunther, American author of MacArthur’s biography, a high American intelligence officer, betrayed his opinion a week before igniting the Korean war in 1950 that "if an outbreak did occur, the south Korean forces (‘best army in Asia’) could wipe out the north Koreans with no difficulty".*
This was a boastful revelation of the whole truth that the United States had obtained at a minimum cost "dependable" cannon fodder that would be used in provoking a war of aggression in Korea.
* John Gunther, The Riddle ofMacAnhur, Tokyo, p. 258.
Seizure of Command of Puppet Army by US Imperialism, Modernization of Equipment of "ROK Army"
Having formed the puppet "ROK army" in south Korea, the US imperialists strove to seize its command, modernize its equipment with American weapons and increase its combat capacity.
The American rulers deemed it necessary, first of all, to strengthen the command of and control over the puppet army while keeping the US troops for a long time in south Korea.
The US imperialists, however, had to take into account the fact that the demand for the simultaneous withdrawal of the US troops from south Korea became stronger than ever, when the Soviet troops had pulled out of north Korea by the end of 1948 to meet the legitimate demand of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Korea.
Hence, the US imperialists figured that they would keep south Korea under their military occupation and retain command of the puppet army in a way different from the one so far followed.
On July 1, 1949, the US government concluded the "Agreement on the Presence of the US Military Advisory Group in Korea" with the Syngman Rhee puppet government. It was an aggressive agreement proceeding from the
72
US ambassador in south Korea, Muccio’s letter to Syngman Rhee, dated June 5,1950
above-mentioned crafty calculation. The aim pursued by the US under this "agreement" was to preserve the prolonged presence of "American Military Advisory Group in south Korea" (AMAG) and strengthen the command and training of the "ROK army" in conformity with its war policy.
The first article of the "agreement" stipulated that the aim of the "AMAG" was to "give the ROK government recommendation and help in organizing, keeping and training the national army including the ground, naval, and air forces and the marines and to ensure the effective utilization of the American military aid by the national army so that the ROK army can be developed". The clause "recommendation and help in organizing, keeping and training the national army" meant, needless to say, that the head of the "AMAG" would control and command the south Korean puppet army. Accordingly, this "agreement" reaffirmed the "right of the US troops to command" the "ROK army", as stipulated in the August 1948 "ROK-US Temporary Military Agreement".
After the conclusion of the agreement, the United States strengthened its control and command over the "ROK army" through the "Military Advisory Group" and modernized its equipment to suit its war policy.
The US imperialists reorganized the "Temporary Military Mission" formed in 1948 into the "AMAG" and posted more than 10 "advisors" to each regiment and battalion of the "ROK army", not to speak of divisions, to direct their training and operations. Thus they completely took the right to control and command the puppet army into their hands. At a press interview in June 1950, Roberts, head of the "AMAG". bragged that he had at least thirteen to fourteen Americans with every division of the "ROK army" as members of the "Military Advisory Group" and that "they worked with the Korean officers, they lived there with them at the front - the 38th parallel - and stayed with them in battles and in rest periods".* His remark showed how far the "AMAG" had gone in controlling the "ROK army", particularly in commanding and directing its military operations along the 38th parallel.
* China Weekly Review, June 5, 1950, Shanghai.
The US imperialists saw to it that "combat-experienced" members of the "AMAG" gave American training to the men of the "ROK army". They were taught, as a basic course, how the US- and Japan-made weapons worked and how they were to be used. And then, entering the year 1950, they underwent a six-month course of full-scale tactical training for the units ranging from
74
squads to regiments in accordance with "instructional memorandum No. 1" prepared by the puppet Ministry of National Defence.
The US imperialists systematically sent the "ROK army" officers to US army units in Japan to receive American military training. Such training was then given by the US 24th Division stationed in Kyushu and Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. According to the Memoirs of Divisional Commander Dean, the training of the "ROK army" officers in the 24th Division continued till the outbreak of the Korean war.*
^Collection of Armv War History edited by the Society for Study and Dissemination of Army War History, Vol. I, Tokyo.
At the above-mentioned press interview on June 5, 1950, Roberts said: "My Military Advisory Group is a living demonstration of how an intelligent and intensive investment of 500 combat-hardened American officers and men can train 100,000 men who will do the shooting for you."* This patently shows wherein lies the aim pursued by the US imperialists in giving hard training to the "ROK army".
* China Weekly Review, June 5, 1950, Shanghai.
While giving the "ROK army" American training, the US imperialists improved its military equipment.
Originally, the American rulers considered that it would be more urgent to arm the south Korean puppets than "to arm any other country" in the endeavour to put their Asian strategy into effect and that there was a "legitimate ground for them to ask for more weapons than any other nation in the world". The US government, therefore, increased its military "aid" to south Korea from the beginning. In September 1949 the "mutual defence and aid act" was enforced under a plan to give south Korea military "aid" in a big way. * i
According to the report of US State Secretary Acheson on publication of the Wedemeyer Reports on May 2, 1951, the weapons and combat technical materiel the United States had handed over to the south Korean puppets for modernization of their army after enforcing the "mutual defence and aid act" were worth nearly 110 million dollars. They included more than 105,000 rifles and carbines, over 2,000 light and heavy machine guns, over 50 million bullets to go with them, mortars, howitzers and other types of guns, and shells to go
75
with them, 5,000 trucks, 50,000 mines and other explosives, 79 war vessels of different types and 20 airplanes.*2
*1. Statement of Senator Connally on the Korean Question in Connection with the Foreign Policy at the US Senate, September 22. 1950.
The concrete contents of the American "aid" were specified in Senator Connally’s statement. It runs something like this: At present we heard the people of some quarters charging that the United States should have given south Korea considerable military aid. The record shows that we have done so. We have given them weapons worth 57 million dollars at the original cost. The cost will double if old weapons are to be replaced with new ones. The equipment included over 100,000 automatic rifles and carbines, 2,000 machine guns. 50 million bullets (0.3 inch-calibre) and a considerable quantity of heavy weapons. They included 60-80 mm mortars. 105 mm howitzers, 57 mm and 37 mm guns. Further, we have handed over to them thousands of shell rockets and hand-grenades. 150 anti-tank guns together with 44.000 shells. various kinds of armoured cars, trucks, thousands of mines and other explosives, a fairly large quantity of communication apparatuses, 79 war vessels and liaison planes. In addition to these weapons, we have given them haulage tractors, motors, generators, barges, medical supplies and other instruments of military value, which are worth 85 million dollars. This will be of considerable help to the south Korean army, viewed from its scale. *2. UP, Washington. May 2, 1951.
Such US military "aid" was of decisive importance in outfiting the "ROK army" from head to toes after the American fashion. Hence, the special correspondent of the New York Times in south Korea reported: "The south Korean troops are the most Americanized troops among all the foreign troops trained by American officers. They are in American uniforms, ride US-made vehicles, carry US-made weapons, and behave themselves like Americans as a result of intensive training for years."*
*Rodong Sinmun, July 1, 1950.
The US imperialists induced the south Korean puppet government to appropriate a bulk of the budget for military expenditure for war preparation, and thus stepped up the reinforcement of the "ROK army".
The total budgetary expenditure of the puppet government for 1949 amounted to 52,989 million won. Of this only 8,400 million won were ear-
76
marked for "industrial development", whereas 24,300 million won or 46 per cent of the total budgetary expenditure were allotted as "national defence expenditure" (13,400 million won) and the "cost of maintenance of public peace" (10,900 million won ).* This clearly shows that the south Korean rulers went to extremes in armament expansion. They were least interested in improving the wretched plight of the south Korean people and developing national industries.
* Ten-Year History of South Korean Industry and Economy, Seoul, p. 366.
Immersed in armament expansion, the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee puppet clique worked to get themselves fully ready for war by securing a large reserve force besides the regular armed forces.
‘The National Protection Army" was part and parcel of such a reserve force.
On November 20, 1948, Syngman Rhee promulgated the "Provisional Ordinance on Measures for Service in the National Protection Army" as an "emergency presidential decree". On this basis the "National Protection Army", a paramilitary organization, was formed, into which many young and middle-aged people of south Korea were pressganged. Even according to the figure announced by the south Korean puppet army authorities, a 40,000-strong reserve force of four brigades had been formed as of January 10, 1949.
The table given below shows the regiments under the brigades of the "National Protection Army" and their command centres:
BRIGADE REGIMENT COMMAND CENTRE
101st Brig. 102nd Brig. 103rd Brig. 106th Brig. 101st Reg. 11 1th Reg. 102nd Reg. 103rd Reg. 11 3th Reg. 106th Reg. 107th Reg. 108th Reg. 110th Reg. Seoul Suwon Taejon Jonju Onyang Taegu Chongju Chunchon Kangrung
77
The "National Protection Army", as revealed by the south Korean puppet army authorities themselves, "constituted part of the ground force, its mission was to contribute to increasing the combat capacity of the regular armed forces and, if necessary, it was to be incorporated into them, classified into two-combat unit and special unit".* It was, in the final analysis, part of the puppet ground force, armed with American weapons, though different in name.
* Army War History edited by the Army Headquarters, Vol. I, Taegu, 1952.
The US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique were becoming ever more zealous with each passing day in their strivings to expand the puppet army and secure as much reserve force as possible.
On August 6, 1949, Syngman Rhee promulgated the "Conscription Law", whereby all the young and middle-aged people in south Korea were forced to serve in the puppet army. And a "Military District Command" was set up in each provincial capital. It was a military terrorist agency to forcibly draft the youth and middle-aged as specified by the "Conscription Law". Everything was thus ready to dragoon all those within the draft age bracket into the puppet army instantly in case of war.*i
What was more, the "Youth Defence Corps", another paramilitary organization, was formed in November 1949, with the fascist terrorist group called "Taehan Young Men’s Association" as its pivot. Its aim was to give systematic military training to young and middle-aged people before drafting them under the "Conscription Law". And the Information Bureau of the Army Headquarters under the Ministry of National Defence of the puppet government was reorganized into the "Youth Defence Bureau". The "Youth Defence Training School" and "Youth Defence Corps Cadre Training School" were placed under its jurisdiction, where the "anti-communist" education and the American military training were given to the young and middle-aged people. *2
*1. Army War History edited by the Army Headquaters, Vol. I, Taegu. 1952, p. 76. *2. Ibid., p. 77.
The "Taehan Young Men’s Association", the pivot of the "Youth Defence Corps", had been organized after the establishment of the puppet
78
regime by amalgamating all the reactionary youth organizations in south Korea including the "National Young Men’s Association", a Nazi-style youth organization set up by Ri Pom Sok, and the "Taedong Young Men’s Association", a terrorist organization formed by Ri Chong Chon. Bearing this in mind, one can readily see that the numerical strength of the "Youth Defence Corps", the reserve corps of the ground force of the puppet army, was several times greater than that of the "ROK army", the regular armed forces. In this context, David W. Conde quoted McCune as saying: "Several youth organizations including General Ri Pom Sok’s ‘Korean National Young Men’s Association’ and General Ri Chong Chon’s ‘Taedong Young Men’s Association’ were giving military training to the right-wing youths. The former reportedly had a membership of 1.25 million as of October 1948". He went on: "In his statement in July 1948, a high-ranking officer of the military government estimated the north Korean army at 125,000 strong as crack units (an extremely exaggerated f\g\ire~Quoter). This hinted that the south Korean side was in a favourable position, the balance of forces standing at a ratio often to one."*
* David W. Conde, An Untold Historv of Modern Korea, Vol. I, Taihei Publishing House, Tokyo, p. 535.
The military forces swelled to show a "ratio of ten to one". What did this wide gap mean? And what should the south Korean society have been like?
The south Korean youth and middle-aged men were compelled to undergo military training, shackled to the "ROK army" or to all hues of paramilitary organizations. Thus, south Korea under US imperialist occupation reminded one of the days of the Pacific War when Japanese imperialists had pressganged all the Korean youth and middle-aged people into the Japanese army under the name of "volunteers", "student-volunteers" or "recruits" and forced military training upon them, in a desperate bid to achieve their aim in the war. Hysteric war atmosphere prevailed over society. A single order would be enough to set a huge armed force into immediate action for a "northward expedition". The thick clouds of civil war were gathering fast.
79
3) Frantic Outcry for a "Northward Expedition"-Prelude to War
With the full-scale expansion of the puppet army and modernization of its equipment there rose a frantic outcry over south Korea for a "northward expe-dition"-for occupation of north Korea by force of arms.
The south Korean rulers, wire-pulled by the US government, behind the scenes, raised a clamour for a "northward expedition," timed to the swelling of the "ROK army".
At his press interview on January 21, 1949 Syngman Rhee expressed the hope that his government troops would attack the north, thus openly revealing his intention to invade north Korea. Addressing the "National Assembly" on February 7, he raved that if he failed to "swallow" north Korea with the aid of the "UN Commission on Korea", the "ROK army" would have to "march to north Korea without fail".*] This speech provoked the officers and men of the puppet army to war.
All the high-ranking officials of south Korea chimed in with Syngman Rhee, when he made the sabre-rattling statement calling for the "northward expedition" from the beginning of the year.
Referring to the tasks of the "ROK army" for 1949 Chae Pyong Dok, Chief of the General Staff of the "ROK army", blared out: "In the New Year we will take practical action to restore the lost territory and unify the homeland". *2 Jang Thaek Sang, Foreign Minister of the puppet government, who had gained notoriety as a human butcher when he had worked as Chief of the "Metropolitan Police" right after liberation, said: "The ROK government will not hesitate to take military action against the north in order to recover the usurped territory". He even had the cheek to prattle arrogantly that "measures would be taken against the north Koreans if they continue to support the north Korean government".*3 In his speech at an open meeting on March 9, 1949, Yun Chi Yong, Home Minister of the puppet government, remarked: "The only way of reunifying north and south Korea is for the ROK to restore the lost territory, north Korea, by force".*4 He openly disclosed that they regarded the "march-north unification" as the one and only
80
way of reunification and had the intention to realize it.
Pack Song Suk, also known as Yosung, a former Home Minister of south Korea, confided to a journalist of the press corps at Kyongmudae, the Presidential residence, ‘This is 4283 by the Tangun calendar. If you read it backwards it means that the 38th parallel should be pushed north. (24 is isa in Korean, meaning house-moving.) This was a hint that the invasion of north Korea was to be launched in 1950.
* 1. Documents on the Atrocities of US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, 1954, p. 497. *2. Hapdong Tongsin, Seoul, Dec. 31,1948. *3. UP, Seoul, Dec. 18, 1948.
*4. Press interview in Seoul on March 9, 1949 as quoted by David W. Conde in An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. II, p. 93.
The clamour raised by Syngman Rhee and other top-notch servitors of south Korea for "march-north unification" and "recovery of the lost territory" fully revealed that they found a basic way of the country’s reunification in a sanguinary war disastrous to the south Korean people and put the provocation of civil war on the order of the day. Notably they were unanimous in calling north Korea the "lost territory" and raving about the need of a "northward expedition" for the "restoration of the lost territory". This implied that from the very beginning they had no desire to reunify the divided country by peaceful means.
The south Korean rulers’ hysteric outcry for a "northward expedition" intended to amalgamate north Korea "by force" was an open challenge to all the north and south Korean people who were striving to remove the danger of territorial partition and realize the country’s peaceful reunification.
In 1948 when the danger of national division became greater owing to the split-the-nation policy of US imperialism, President Kim Il Sung, who, prompted by a noble love for the country and the nation, advanced the just policy for the independent national reunification and wisely led all the Korean people to the struggle for its implementation, said as follows:
"We should know that we will be committing a never-to-be-pardoned crime against the nation and posterity if we fail to fight in unity and do not take a save-the- nation measure to crush the US imperialists’ invasion, at this grave moment when the country is in danger of split.
"We must wage a nationwide struggle with might and main to build a unified, sovereign and independent state and establish a unified government on democratic principles."
81
To fight in unity to ward off the danger of national division and build a unified, sovereign and independent state by the united efforts of the whole nation was the most important national task facing the north and south Korean people who are of one and the same lineage.
True to President Kim Il Sung’s teaching that a great measure should be taken to save the nation, the Inaugural Meeting of a Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland was held in Pyongyang in June 1949. The meeting discussed the situation prevailing in our country, and put forward a proposal for the peaceful reunification of the country with the aim of foiling the south Korean rulers’ plot to start a civil war at the instigation of US imperialism and thus saving the country and the people.*
* The Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland called upon all the democratic political parties and social organizations and the entire people of north and south Korea to fight for the country’s peaceful reunification, and advanced a proposal to the following effect:
1. The country should be reunified by the efforts of the Korean people themselves.
2. The US troops should pull out of south Korea immediately.
3. The "UN Commission on Korea," an illegal setup, should withdraw at once.
4. The election to a unified legislative body should be held simultaneously in north and south Korea in September 1949.
5. The democratic political parties and social organizations should be legalized and their free activities be guaranteed.
6. A supreme legislative body to be set up through the general election should adopt a Constitution and, on its basis, form a government. (Korean Central Yearbook, 1950, Pyongyang, p. 93.)
The validity of this proposal of the DFRF Central Committee was clear to all.
No sooner had the proposal for the country’s peaceful reunification been made public than the entire Korean people in the north and the south expressed their strong support and approval. The DPRK Government, too, considering the proposal to be the most reasonable one conforming to the will of the Korean people, declared that it would make every effort to put it into effect.
The south Korean rulers, however, not only refused to accept that proposal but also tried their hardest to keep it secret from the people, and clamoured even more hysterically for a "northward expedition" with a view to diverting the south Korean people’s attention elsewhere.
82
The enemy’s slogan put up for “northward-attacking” war:”Today the
38th Parallel, tomorrow Pyongyang”
On July 17, 1949, soon after the announcement of the DFRF proposal for peaceful reunification, Sin Song Mo, Minister of National Defence of the south Korean puppet regime, showed up at the site of a demonstration training of the Inchon municipal unit of the "Taehan Young Men’s Association", and said: "Our ROK army is waiting only for the presidential order. It has confidence in its capacity to completely capture Pyongyang and even Wonsan in the north in a single day at any time if an order comes to do so". He thus egged the members of the young men’s association on to a "northward expedition". Syngman Rhee was so intent on a "northward expedition" that at his interview with Joseph L. Johnston, Vice-President of the United Press, early in October, he touched on the steady progress in the training of the "ROK army" and boastfully said that it would be "possible to take Pyongyang in three days".*! He "confidently" twanged the same tune in his official speech during the US Republican Senator Smith’s visit to Seoul.*2 He went so far as to quote Churchill as saying, "Give us the tools and we will do the job", and thus hinted to his US masters that he would charge northward at any time at Washington’s bidding if only they gave him a sufficient amount of weapons.*3
* 1. Seoul Sinmun, October 21,1949.
*2. New York Times, October 8, 1949.
*3. Letter of Syngman Rhee to American Professor Dr. Robert T. Oliver dated September
30, 1949 (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US
Imperialists, p. 67).
Military information experts at the MacArthur Command boasted that the south Korean puppet army, the "strongest in Asia", could "annihilate the north Korean army without difficulty." (The Riddle of MacArthur, Japan, Jiji Press, 1951 edition, p. 258.)
At a time when all the people of north and south Korea supported the DFRF proposal for the country’s peaceful reunification and ardently desired its realization, the Syngman Rhee clique went against it and schemed to occupy the whole territory of north Korea by force through a "northward expedition" and achieve "unification". This was their stand and attitude toward national reunification.
The south Korean puppets’ row over a "northward expedition" was a prelude to war, as it openly signified their intention to start a civil war at any time at the request of the United States.
84
In tune with this prelude the members of the "US Military Advisory Group" mapped out the plan for a ‘"northward expedition".
4) Program for the "Northward Expedition" Mapped Out
The US imperialists entered the stage of full-scale preparations for war from the late spring of 1949 to "doubly secure" the "north-bound expedition". This was timed to the frenzied clamour for a "northward expedition".
One day in May 1949 Muccio, US Ambassador to south Korea, called Sin Song Mo, Minister of National Defence of the puppet government, and Kim Hyo Sok, Minister of the Interior, to his office and told them: "The United States stands behind you. Just have confidence in us and carry out faithfully what we advise and instruct you. Might decides everything. All the more so to settle world affairs. The American might alone can do it. The time of their settlement must come as quickly as possible. You must fully understand this situation as well as our plans, and get yourselves fully ready and strive for the earliest general assault upon the north of the 38th parallel."*
* Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok (ex-Minister of the Interior of the Syngman Rhee puppet government) on September 26, 1950 (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, p. 113).
By so saying, Muccio hinted to the south Korean puppets that the United States placed its scheme for the provocation of war in Korea on the order of the day as an immediate issue in the late spring of 1949 and, at the same time, urged them, culprits who were to directly carry on the "northward expedition", to make full preparations for war without losing any time.
While instructing the south Korean puppets to get fully ready for war, the US started working out the plan for the "northward expedition". The plan was drawn up by KATO*i, which comprised generals from the former Japanese army and was affiliated to the intelligence bureau G-2 at the MacArthur Command and the "History Research Association"*2 under G-3, and involved William Roberts, head of the "AMAG" in south Korea, and Jong II Gwon, Kim
85
Sok Won and several other senior officers from the south Korean puppet army.
*1.KATO was a secret organization whose staff was made up of Kawahe (K), deputy chief of staff of the former Japanese army, and Arisue (A). Tanaka (T) and Ono (O). *2.The "History Research Association1’ at the MacArthur Command was a secret organization with Hattori, director of the operations department of the army of the former imperial Headquarters in Japan, as its pivotal figure.
The basic tasks of these secret organizations were to draw up a plan to start a war against the Soviet Union and the Korean war under the direction of G-2 and G-3 at the MacArthur Command. For the execution of these tasks these Japanese war criminals made frequent visits to Seoul dressed in south Korean puppet army or American army uniform. (The Visits of People, Japan, No. 9, 1964.)
These secret organizations, on the order of MacArthur, produced "ABC", a war plan for aggression in the Far East. A colonel in the former Japanese army, "O", who had a direct hand in drawing up the operational plan, said the following to Kamura Masamitsu, the author of the book, The Japanese General in the Korean War on the eve of the Korean war:
"The aggressive operation in the Far East has been planned to be carried out in three stages, the first of which is the invasion of Korea.
"... First ten divisions of the south Korean army and the US army have been concentrated along the 38th parallel, with the operational sections divided in two, the East and the West. The Western front troops will advance straight to Pyongyang and, in support of them, landing operations will be conducted with the cooperation of naval and air forces in areas north of Pyongyang.
"Meanwhile, on the eastern front, the right wing forces will press on to Yangdok and, so as to maintain communications between Pyongyang and Wonsan, the left wing will occupy Wonsan. Simultaneously, a naval force will conduct landing operations in areas north of Wonsan.
"The forces operating in the above two operational districts will push up to the River Amnok in close cooperation with each other. From there they will break through the Korea-Manchuria frontier in pursuit of any surviving troops. The first stage of the operation will come to a conclusion here. Thus a detailed strategic plan has been drawn up based on the data from the former Japanese army.
86
US plan of invasion of the northern half of the Republic(1949)
"The operation will enter Stage Two with the breakthrough along the Korea-Manchuria border. Here the revived Japanese army and the nationalist army (the Chiang Kai-shek army-Editor) are expected to take part in the operation openly." (The Visits of People, No. 9, 1964.)
Stage One is Operational Plan A, which coincides in substance with the "Northern Strategic Plan" recorded on a US army map obtained in Seoul. This is proof that the strategic plan was produced by KATO.
Stage Two is Plan B, and Plan C is the plan for the invasion of Siberia. According to a secret agreement when this intrusion proved successful Manchuria would come under the rule of Syngman Rhee while the Maritime Provinces of Siberia would be placed under Japan’s control.
In addition, a detailed war plan was drawn up also in Seoul in south Korea at the bidding of the MacArthur Command. The plan for military actions of the "ROK army" to this end was mapped out by Roberts, head of the "US Military Advisory Group", according to the testimony of Kim Hyo Sok, ex-Minister of the Interior of the puppet government, who had frequented the US embassy at Muccio’s call and received direct instructions concerning preparations for the "northward expedition". Kim Sok Won, Commander of the First Division of the puppet army, and Ho Jong, Minister of Transport of the puppet regime, reportedly cooperated in this work.*
* Ibid ., p. 116.
According to the Roberts’ military plan for the "northward expedition", operations were to begin on the "western and eastern fronts" simultaneously in July and August, and the First Division of the puppet army that would operate on the western front was to bear the brunt of battle. In this context Kim Hyo Sok testified: "As for the contents of the so-called north-bound expedition plan to be put into execution in July and August 1949, the First Division was to become the main force under the direct command of Roberts and be reinforced as strong as an army corps, with the Ongjin and Kaesong districts to become the main theater of operations. Kim Sok Won was to assume the direct responsibility for these operations under the command of Roberts. Full-scale attack was to be mounted on the western front, and the eastern front was only to provide cover for this attack. A decision was made to set up even a garrison command in Inchon if the situation would develop in their favour. It was their plan to launch attack from
Kaesong and take Kumgyo and, if things went smoothly, to occupy even Pyongyang."*
* Ibid., pp. 115-16.
It goes without saying that Kim Hyo Sok’s testimony did not go into detail about their action plan for the "northward expedition" because he was not a brass hat of the puppet army nor did he take part directly in working out the plan. His testimony, however, correctly keynoted that plan. Glaring proof of this was furnished by the map of military operations for the "northward expedition" which the Korean People’s Army captured in the puppet army headquarters after it liberated Seoul on June 28, 1950.
This map had been published by the US Army Map Service in 1945, on the one-one million scale.
The lines, arrows and other marks on this map show the military action plan of the south Korean puppet army for the "northward expedition".
According to the map, the two army corps, or ten divisions of the puppet army were to be deployed along the 38th parallel for their projected "northward expedition".
The First Army Corps was to commence military action from the line between Korangpho northeast of Kaesong and the west coast and, at the same time, the Second Army Corps was to go into action from the line between Korangpho and the east coast.
The First Army Corps, consisting of the First Echelon (the First and Second Divisions and one independent regiment) and the Second Echelon (the Fifth Division, three independent regiments and several artillery units), was to simultaneously "march northward" from the left and right flanks in the Kaesong and Ongjin areas and advance toward Pyongyang via Sariwon. The Second Army Corps, made up of the First Echelon (the Seventh and Eighth Divisions) and the Second Echelon (the Sixth Division, an independent regiment and an A.A. artillery unit), was to start the "northward march" from Tongduchon and Chunchon. The Third Division and the mechanized division were designated as reserve units for the First and Second Army Corps of the first and second districts.
Some units of the puppet army would land at Hanchon (Pyongwon County, South Phyongan Province) on the west coast and at Hanam-ri (Jongphyong County, South Hamgyong Province) on the east coast under cover of the air
89
force, while military actions were taken on the main front along the 38th parallel. The operational plan was drawn according to Mac Arthur Command’s plan framed by the KATO secret service and the History Research Association.
In short this "northward expedition" can be generally outlined as follows: The puppet army would be divided into two army corps. The main target of attack was set on the western front in the direction of Kumgyo, Sariwon and Pyongyang. On the eastern front the action for the "northward expedition" would be directed to Ryonchon and Wonsan. In this course they would cooperate with other units which would land at Hanchon and Hanam-ri, and march on to take Pyongyang at a blow and, further, occupy the rest of north Korea.
Along with mapping this military action program, the work for ensuring its execution was pushed ahead under a concrete plan. Its contents were as follows:
First, military bases were to be built up solidly.
Roberts, head of the "AMAG", planned to actively speed up the construction of air bases in south Korea as part of the preparation for the "northward expedition."
In his "testimony", Kim Hyo Sok said: "Roberts, Sin Song Mo, Chae Pyong Dok and myself, four in all, met in the office of the Minister of National Defence late in April 1949. There Roberts told us: The construction of an airdrome is badly needed for mopping up the partisans and conducting the northbound expedition in the future. I want you to keep this in mind and do everything you can for it. Now, the construction of the airdromes in Yongju and Wonju is urgent. Issue instructions immediately to render full cooperation in it. This project is urgent and important. Top-priority should be given to it, even if other projects are called off.’ This was a preparatory project for the ‘northward expedition’ in July and August last year (\949-Quoter) planned by the US imperialists".*
* Ibid., p. 114.
The building of airdromes in south Korea was an urgent task of the US aggressors for transporting war supplies, covering the ground force which would launch the "north-bound march" and for conducting the "scorched-earth" operation by their air force.
Roberts’ instruction as to stepping up the construction of the airdromes in Yongju (North Kyongsang Province) and Wonju (Kangwon Province) indicat-
90
ed that their planned "northward expedition" was not aimed at a local military action or a temporary armed invasion but envisaged a large-scale total war which would involve even the air force.
At the same time, Roberts’ instruction tells us that in its "northward expedition" planned in 1949, too, the United States intended to bring into action large units of its air force, besides the flying corps of the "ROK army" which had air bases in Kimpho, Suwon, Taegu, Kunsan, Kwangju and Jeju Island.
Upon Roberts" instruction, the Ministry of the Interior of the Syngman Rhee puppet government got down to the construction of the airdrome in Wonju close to the 38th parallel on the east coast by forcibly mobilizing a large number of the local people, particularly the peasants during their busy farming season.
In anticipation of the involvement of US naval fleets in a Korean war, the US imperialists, while working out the "northward expedition" program, planned to send their fleet to south Korea to confirm the conditions of the naval bases on the spot and pushed this work actively. A typical example is afforded by the "visit" to south Korea by a unit of the US Pacific Fleet.
In the summer of 1949 this unit consisting of a cruiser and a destroyer arrived in south Korea under the command of Rear Admiral Binford. This was done under the cloak of a "friendship visit". But the aim pursued by the US aggressors in this visit was to confirm again on the spot the actual conditions of naval bases in south Korea prior to the "northward expedition" and, moreover, to obtain reassurance from the south Korean rulers that the US fleet would be allowed to use those ports in case of the outbreak of war.
During this "visit," Binford was "so impressed by the Bay of Jinhae" in particular. He realized his object by receiving from the Syngman Rhee puppet clique the offer of the "privilege of using all the open ports as temporary mobile bases of the US fleet".*
* In his "memorandum" of July 18, 1949 sent to M. Chang, south Korean Ambassador in Washington, and Jo Pyong Ok. Ambassador Plenipotentiary, Syngman Rhee pointed out: "We had another visit by a unit of the United States Pacific Fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Binford... and he is so impressed with the Bay of Jinhae... he suggested we address a letter to the commanding officer of the US Pacific Fleet to accept our offer of the privilege of using all our open ports as temporary mobile bases." (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, p. 60.)
91
The same day. on July 18. Son Won It, Chief of General Staff of the south Korean puppet navy, officially informed Radford. Commander of the Pacific Fleet, "We shall be glad to afford the facilities of our several ports, including Inchon, Pusan, Ryosu, Mukho and the naval base of Jinhae. as temporary mobile bases of your fleet." (Ibid., p. 62.)
This was how the US imperialists obtained the final assurance of the bases their navy would use in a Korean war, while drawing up the plan for a "northward expedition".
Second, the US imperialists planned to make a wholesale roundup of the anti-Syngman Rhee government force and the members of the Workers1 Party of South Korea and "fortify" the rear for their "northward expedition" action.*
^’Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok on September 26, 1950" (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, p. 114).
The summer of 1949 witnessed a sweeping roundup in all areas of south Korea. Many people were arrested and jailed. This was a criminal act committed by the US imperialists under this plan.
While mapping out the "northward expedition" plan the "AMAG" and Syngman Rhee clique effected a change in the disposition of the "ROK army" units in June 1949 on the principle of concentrically deploying them in the forward area along the 38th parallel.
How matters stood in this respect is seen from the table below.
FORWARD AREA
Division Place of Deployment
8th Div. Kangrung & Jumunjin area
6th Div. Chunchon & Wonju area
7th Div. Tongduchon area
1st Div. Kaesong area Metropolitan Div. Seoul area
17th Reg. under Ongjin area direct control of Army Hq.
Place of Command
Kangrung
Wonju
Uijongbu
Susaek
Seoul
Ongjin
92
SECOND-LINE AREA
Division Place of Deployment
2nd Div. Central area
3rd Div. Ryongnam area
5th Div. Honam area
Place of Command
Taejon
Taegu Kwangju
(Army War History edited by the Army Headquarters, Vol. II, Seoul, p. 10.)
As seen from the above, the bulk of the puppet armed forces were concentrated in the areas along the 38th parallel with elaboration of the "northward expedition" plan.
The task of the units deployed on the second line was to act as the reserve force of the main attackers on the front in the operations for the "northward expedition" and, further, to quell the guerrilla struggle and anti-US, national salvation struggle of the south Korean people.
The US completed war preparations in Korea by drawing up the "northward expedition" plan and changing the disposition of the armed forces.
All these war preparations of the members of the "AMAG" and the south Korean rulers presented a striking contrast to the economic construction carried on in north Korea by the state and the people. When the "northward expedition" plan was drawn up in south Korea, the people forcibly mobilized in the construction of military airdromes and the patriots rounded up en masse under the notorious "National Security Law", all the people in north Korea were addressing themselves to increased production for fulfilment and overfulfilment of the Two-Year National Economic Plan (1949-1950) which would be so helpful to the improvement of their living standards and the country’s peaceful reunification.
The diametrically different realities of the north and south in the summer of 1949 were clear examples of who were zealously stepping up war preparations in Korea and who were exerting consistent efforts for the peaceful reunification of the divided country.
93
5) "Small War" along the 38th Parallel
In tune with the "march north" racket, the "AMAG" drove the "ROK army" and south Korean police force to armed assaults on the area north of the 38th parallel with greater frequency. This was a link in the chain of their preparations for war in Korea.
In fact, the south Korean puppet army and police had started intruding into the territory north of the 38th parallel from 1947, long before the United States ignited the Korean war.
Even according to data roughly summarized, the south Korean puppet army and police infiltrated their squads, platoons or companies into Kangwon and Hwanghae Provinces on 270-odd occasions in 1947 and let them commit all sorts of barbarities-murder, kidnapping, pillage, arson, etc.
In 1948 they sent out greater details-companies or battalions-to Kangwon and Hwanghae Provinces, where they, occupying some areas, perpetrated all kinds of atrocities.
Such armed provocations by the south Korean side were undisguised challenge to the ardent desire of all the people in north and south Korea for the independent and peaceful reunification of the country.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"...the Government of the Republic perseveringly put up with the intrusion of the traitorous clique in order not to expand the conflicts in the areas along the 38th parallel, displaying sharp vigilance and great patience to avoid the tragedy of the fratricidal war the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique was going to start under the manipulation of the US imperialists."
The DPRK Government exercised patience with the armed intrusion of the south Korean puppet clique from the start, proceeding from its desire for the peaceful reunification of the country.
Nevertheless, the south Korean side continued armed provocations in the areas along the 38th parallel with greater frequency and on a larger scale, abusing the lofty desire of the DPRK and its persevering efforts.
The armed intrusion of the south Korean puppet army and police assumed an unusual scale when war preparations were completed in south Korea with
94
Memorandum (August 26, 1949) of conversation with the high-ranking officers of the south Korean puppet army. The remark Min Ki Sik, Assistant Commandant of the School of Anns, made in conversation with Henderson is underlined
the mapping out of the "northward expedition" plan and the redeployment of the armed forces. In 1949 the battalions and regiments of the 8th, 1st and Metropolitan Divisions of the "ROK army" and the special units called "Horim Unit" and "Skull and Crossbones Unit" plus the puppet police force made 2,617 armed invasions into the air space, land and sea north of the 38th parallel covering areas from Pyoksong County, Hwanghae Province, to Yangyang, Kangwon Province.
According to the testimony of Mun Hak Bong, advisor to the CIC of the US occupation troops in south Korea and political advisor to Syngman Rhee, all these armed intrusions by the south Korean side were planned by Roberts, head of the "AMAG", and perpetrated under his personal command.*
* In this context Mun Hak Bong gave the following testimony: "Roberts ordered Chae Pyong Dok to invade the north, presupposing the northward expedition. The invasions upon the areas north of the 38th parallel till August 1949 were all made on Roberts’ orders. Roberts would instruct Chae Pyong Dok to launch an intrusion into the north. And when things turned unfavourable to the south in face of the fierce courtteroffensive of the north, he would immediately give an order to cease action. Any clash, however small, was organized under the personal command of the US army advisor" (Mun Hak Bong, Exposure of the Truth about the US Imperialist Poiicv of Aggression against Korea and the Real Provoker of the Civil War, pp. 69-70). In this connection Kim Hyo Sok also gave testimony: "In July 1949 Roberts instructed Chae Pyong Dok, Chief of the General Staff of the puppet army, and Kim Sok Won, Commander of the 1st Division, to mount attack on the territory north of the 38th parallel at early dawn of the 25th of July 1949". ‘Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok on September 26, 1950" (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US imperialists, p. 115). Pae Yong Sik, who had formerly belonged to the headquarters of the 6th Company, the 2nd Battalion, the 11th Regiment, the 1 st Division of the "ROK army," came over to the north on September 16, 1949, and stated that the armed intrusion by the 11th Regiment into the areas north of the 38th parallel had been directed by an American captain and three first lieutenants, who had acted as advisors to the regiment. "Report of the Investigation Commission of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland on Results of Investigation on Armed Conflicts along the 38th Parallel" (Documents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, p. 498).
The "AMAG" and the south Korean rulers pursued the following aims in
96
herding the puppet army and police for armed intrusion into the areas north of the 38th parallel:
The first aim was to confirm whether the puppet army and police were "ready for action" and to increase their “combat capabilities”. In July 1949 Roberts, head of the "AMAG", told Chae Pyong Dok and Kim Sok Won the following: "The north-bound invasion scheduled this time will be a good guinea pig for an imminent civil war. A close battle will get you to have a direct touch with the enemy and acquire a living knowledge."*! By this Roberts meant that the aim of their armed provocation was to inflict casualties on the combatants of the DPRK Security Forces and check their combat capacity by raiding their posts and, at the same time, use the occasion as a "guinea pig" for "combat preparedness" of the puppet army and police and give them a chance to gain experience and "living knowledge" for a war of aggression.
The second aim was to cause social disorder and unrest in north Korea by setting fire to villages and houses and killing and kidnapping innocent people in the areas north of the 38th parallel. Eloquent proof of this is furnished by the tasks assigned to the "Horim Unit" which intruded into the territory north of the 38th parallel in July 1949. The unit was wiped out to the last man by the DPRK Security Forces, while intruding into Yangyang County, Kangwon Province, and committing all sorts of savage barbarities. A memo found in the pocketbook of Paek Ui Gon, Commander of the Fifth Battalion of the unit, disclosed the following instructions he had received from the higher-ups, concerning the operation: "...the political corps should concentrate on securing weapons, ammunitions, provisions, clothes and other necessities...", "no means should be left untried... destroying one side, assaulting the other side...", "only cold-blooded punishment, without a speck of mercy...", and "disguise yourself as an officer of the north as best you can and stir up the anti-communist sentiments among the people".*2 As seen from the tasks of the "Horim Unit" and the mode of its operation, the chief aim of their intrusion into the territory north of the 38th parallel was to kill innocent people without the slightest sign of mercy, leaving no stone unturned in destruction and assault, and infect the people in north Korea with the "anti-communist" idea.
The third aim sought by the United States and the south Korean rulers in the armed intrusion was to reconnoiter the defence positions of the DPRK Security Forces and capture tactical vantage points for their full-scale invasion in the future. It can be said that the attacks of the south Korean puppet army and police on Mts. Unpha and Pidulgi, Pyoksong County, Hwanghae Province,
97
and on Mt. Songak were typical incidents indicative of their tactical aims in the armed invasion.
* ] .’Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok on September 26, 1950" (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, p. 115). *2."Report of the Investigation Commission of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland on Results of Investigation on Armed Conflicts along the 38th Parallel" (Documents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 502).
Geared to such aims, the armed intrusions of the US imperialists and the south Korean rulers were not mere limited conflicts of local character from the outset. They often developed into large-scale actions fraught with the danger of expanding into a total war.
The invasion of the south Korean puppet army and police, however, was frustrated each time by the men of the DPRK Security Forces who stood guard vigilantly at their posts along the 38th parallel. The US imperialists and Syng-man Rhee could not achieve any political and military aims in the armed intrusions.
Here are some of the enemy’s typical armed provocations.
(1) Armed Intrusions into the Area of Pyoksong County, Hwanghae Province
With a view to capturing the tactical heights in Kachon Sub-County, Pyoksong County, Hwanghae Province, the Army Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence of the south Korean puppet government brought into action the units of the First Division of the "ROK army", which fired more than 20,000 shots from mortars, heavy machine guns and rifles at the area north of the 38th parallel from May 21 to 26, 1949. On the night of May 27 some 350 men of the First Division of the puppet army intruded into the area of Kachon Sub-County, but were beaten back by a unit of the DPRK Security Forces on guard, failing to accomplish their aim.
In order to recover from the setback and occupy Mt. Kuksa, Height 112, Height 129, Hanhyon-ri and Sangjik-dong in the area north of the 38th parallel, the two reinforced infantry battalions and part of the "Skull and Crossbones Unit" mounted armed attack under cover of planes from the night of May 31
98
till daytime of June 1. Their attack was repulsed again in face of the stubborn defence of the units of the DPRK Security Forces. Now, the five battalions of the enemy’s First Division concentrated at a point close to Ongjin and launched attack again at dawn on June 7 after shelling and firing machine guns, under the cover of planes.
Meanwhile, the two enemy companies intruded into Jungjik-dong and Okchon-dong for the purpose of cutting off the road between Haeju and Jangy-on and encircling the units of the DPRK Security Forces. At the same time, one or more battalions made invasions in the direction of Mts. Unpha, Kachi, and Pidulgi to disperse the strength of the DPRK Security Forces.
The battle in the area of Pyoksong County grew in scope and intensity. The enemy attacked Heights 122 and 84, Mts. Unpha, Pidulgi and Kachi, held these heights temporarily and tried hard to keep them under his control.
This attempt, however, was shattered in no time. The men of the DPRK Security Forces on defence assignment mopped up the south Korean puppet troops and restored the heights with the active support of local people.
The enemy hurled more than 3,700 puppet army men into this battle. But the result was that they had suffered a loss of over 1,300 casualties, some 60 captured and a lot of heavy machine guns, rocket guns and other weapons before they beat a retreat.
(2) Armed Intrusions into Yangyang Area, Kangwon Province
The south Korean puppet army, commanded by the "AMAG" came frequently invading the area of Yangyang County, Kangwon Province, in June and July 1949 with an eye to recovering from their ignominious defeat in the area of Pyoksong County and, moreover, securing their tactical positions for the "northward expedition".
Earlier at the beginning of February 1949, some 1,300 men of the "ROK army" and police force attacked Mt. Kosan in Yangyang County but took flight after suffering a sledge-hammer blow from the units of the DPRK Security Forces defending that territory. Nevertheless, the south Korean puppet army and police did not abandon their aggressive designs to take it and create some favourable conditions for further invasion.
In July 1949 the enemy decided to strike the main blow at Mt. Kosan in Hyonbuk Sub-County, Yangyang County, and a supplementary blow at Yong-
99
dok-ri and Kongsujon-ri in So Sub-County of the same county, by throwing in the two battalions of the 10th Regiment of the 8th Division of the "ROK army" stationed in Kangrung and one battalion of the 8th Regiment of the 6th Division in Wonju, plus a considerable artillery force.
On July 5 the crafty enemy sent one reinforced battalion into Yongdok-ri and Kongsujon-ri, So Sub-County, Yangyang County, in an attempt to conceal their action for the main attack. In face of the stiff counteroffensive of the men of the DPRK Security Forces defending that area, the enemy tried to encircle and attack Mt. Kosan.
At dawn of July 6, the enemy force attacked Mt. Kosan in front and on the right and left flanks after a 40-minute artillery barrage. But this reckless invasion bumped into the strong defence of the DPRK Security Forces. Men of the Security Forces pursued the retreating enemies, gave them a crushing blow and chased the remnants south of the 38th parallel. The attempt of the "ROK army" to occupy Mt. Kosan collapsed.
In this battle the brave combatants of the DPRK Security Forces killed more than 250 men of the "ROK army" and captured some 30 men and a large quantity of combat technical equipment.
(3) Armed Intrusions into the Area of Mt. Songak
While making invasions upon Pyoksong County, Hwanghae Province and upon the area of Kangwon Province, the enemy tried to create favourable conditions for the "northward expedition" by taking Mt. Songak (Height 488.2) in Ryongnam Sub-County, Jangphung County, Hwanghae Province, north of the 38th parallel.
For both the north and the south, Mt. Songak was a point of key importance in military actions. If the "ROK army" had taken it, the defending units of the DPRK Security Forces would have had no recourse but to pull back far into the rear to take up new positions. That was why Syngman Rhee’s troops had made several surprise attacks to capture it. But each time they were driven back to the south, sustaining a setback. Nevertheless, the tactical importance of the height tempted the "AMAG" to persist in its wild attempt to take it. Early in May 1949 a south Korean puppet army unit as large as one battalion made a surprise attack on Mt. Songak under the cover of artillery fire but encountered the fierce counterattack of the units of the DPRK Security Forces and beat a
100
retreat, leaving over 100 casualties behind.
The enemy’s attack on Mt. Songak was resumed on a larger scale in the summer of 1949. At dawn of July 25, 1949, the battalions of the 11th Regiment of the First Division of the puppet army raided Mt. Songak under cover of heavy artillery fire and took it. To hold on to it, the enemy built new defence positions, continued to increase its force and brought in many guns. It perpetrated such hideous barbarities as setting fire to farmhouses and brutally killing people in that area. The units of the DPRK Security Forces made counterattacks on July 26, 27 and 28. This whipped the enemy into a new frenzy. He brought more troops from the rear and concentrated them on the area of Kaesong.
The enemy, however, suffered a smashing blow from the fierce attack of the men of the DPRK Security Forces, and took to flight from Mt. Songak on the evening of the 29th.
In this battle the units of the DPRK Security Forces killed, wounded or captured more than 300 enemy soldiers and seized a lot of weapons and other combat technical equipment.
(4) Armed Intrusions into the Area of Mt. Unpha
The enemy’s armed invasion of the territory north of the 38th parallel was rampant especially in the area of Mt. Unpha, Pyoksong County, Hwanghae Province.
Mt. Unpha was a very important height in defending the area of Pyoksong and Chwiya northwest of Haeju. More than one battalion force of the enemy occupied Mt. Unpha in late June 1949 and held it for nearly four months. It forcibly mobilized the inhabitants in building defence positions and continued to bring in reinforcements. The enemy built 47 pill-boxes and trenches on the northern slope of Mt. Unpha as the main position and deployed there a force of one or more battalions. Moreover, it posted one company on Mt. Pidulgi on the "left of Mt. Unpha and another company on Mt. Rukdal on the right. As the reserve corps the "Ongjin Battle Command" kept one battalion in Kangryong and one more battalion, a 105-mm field battery and a 57-mm anti-tank battery in the area west of Ongjin.
The enemy force that had occupied Mt. Unpha shelled the area of Haeju almost daily, bragging about its "strong reserve force". At night it intruded into
101
the inhabited villages like Chwiya and Jukchon-dong, killing people and taking away domestic animals and other property.
It was on October 14 that the enemy force was beaten back from Mt. Unpha by the counteroffensive of the units of the DPRK Security Forces. At that time, too, the two enemy battalions, together with the reserve corps of the "Ongjin Battle Command", came countercharging the units of the Security Forces on 32 occasions from the night of October 14 to October 18. It may be said that the battle showed how desperate the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee puppet clique were in their attempt to secure tactical strongholds for their north-bound invasion.
The enemy force, however, sustained a serious setback each time. It lost over 1,200 effectives in the nearly four-month-long battle on Mt. Unpha.
(5) Armed Intrusions into the Territory North of the 38th Parallel
from the Sea
The armed intrusions intended to confirm the "combat preparedness" of the "ROK army" and foster its combat capacity were launched also from the sea.
A typical example was afforded by the surprise attack on Monggumpho launched by the war vessels of the south Korean puppet navy in August 1949 under the US manipulation.
According to the later statement issued by Ri Ryong Un, ex-Commander of the First Fleet of the south Korean puppet navy, the surprise raid on Monggumpho was made on personal instructions from Syngman Rhee and Sin Song Mo, Minister of National Defence of the puppet government.
On August 6, 1949, Sin Song Mo went to Wolmi Island off Inchon and told Ri Ryong Un, Commander of the First Fleet of the puppet navy: "An information available says that north Korea is going to concentrate many war vessels on Monggumpho for a naval review to be held on August 15." Sin ordered Ri to "destroy them at a blow" and then, for this operation, appointed him as commander of the special task force and organized a naval commando with six war vessels which had formerly belonged to the Japanese navy.
Following the order of Sin Song Mo, a special task force under the command of Ri Ryong Un intruded into Monggumpho (Hwanghae Province) on the west coast of Korea on August 18 and suddenly bombarded the patrol boats
102
of the DPRK concentrated there and the village of Monggumpho-ri, hijacking one patrol boat. Disclosing the above-mentioned fact, Ri Ryong Un said: "The war, in fact, started with ‘south Korea’s provocation’." This implies that the surprise attack on Monggumpho was one of the preliminary actions for a total war in Korea.
(6) Murder, Terrorism and Destruction by South Korean
"Special Units" Aimed at "Stirring Up Public Sentiment"
While driving the puppet army and police force into open armed intrusions into the territory north of the 38th parallel, the "AMAG" and Syngman Rhee clique sent specially trained subversive elements, spies, murderers and terrorists in groups there in an attempt to disorganize the democratic construction and stir up the public sentiment in north Korea. The subversive elements and terrorists were recruited from among the hooligans of such fascist organizations as "Taehan Young Men’s Association", "Civilian Defence Corps" and "Association of Young Men from the Northwest". Most of their activities were conducted under the plan drawn up by the intelligence section of the Army Headquarters of the puppet clique.
On June 29, 1949, under the baton of the "AMAG", the two battalions (the 5th and 6th) of the "Horim Unit" notorious as a "special attack unit" stole into the area of Jindong-ri and Osaek-ri, So Sub-County, Yangyang County, Kangwon Province. Their tasks were to intrude deep into the territory north of the 38th parallel, destroy the important factories and enterprises, assassinate cadres of the Party and government bodies and social organizations, confuse people’s minds through murder and arson and isolate the units of the DPRK Security Forces stationed in Yangyang County by cutting off the traffic route between Wonsan and Yangyang so as to help the main units of the "ROK army" in their attack on Mt. Kosan.
The 5th Battalion of the "Horim Unit" infiltrated deep into the mountain area of Kanghyon Sub-County and Sokcho Sub-County, Yangyang County, north of the 38th parallel. Holding it as its base, it came down to the villages at night to commit incendiarism and slaughter and abduct people.
On the other hand, the 6th Battalion of the "Horim Unit" stealthily intruded deep into the mountain area of Puk Sub-County and Sohwa Sub-County, Rinje County, Kangwon Province, looted goods from the shops and clinics,
103
robbed the farmers of their grain, kidnapped and killed inhabitants.
In a week the "Horim Unit" had killed 28 innocent people, abducted 50 and burnt down many houses in Yangyang and Rinje Counties.
The enemy, however, failed to achieve any political or military aims.
On July 5 men of the DPRK Security Forces encircled and wiped out the "Horim Unit" that was engrossed in barbarities against the people. They finished off 106 of the 150 men of the "Horim Unit" and took 44 captives.
The barbarities perpetrated by the "Horim Unit" exposed the cruel nature of the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee puppet clique who were running amuck to ignite a war in Korea, and fully laid bare the falsity of their vociferous propaganda about the "threat of a southward aggression".
We can say that each of the above-mentioned typical armed intrusions was virtually "a kind of war", taking into account the size of the military force hurled into it, the fierceness of battle, and the length of its line and duration. For this reason, it is said that the Korean war started in 1947, instead of 1950. It could be prevented from developing into a total war only by dint of the units of the DPRK Security Forces which dealt strong blows at the enemy. In this sense, "each armed clash on the 38th parallel" had been a "small war", as commented by some Western publications.
The armed intrusions into the territory north of the 38th parallel in 1949 brought only losses to the south Korean puppet army and police: they produced many casualties and captives and lost a huge amount of combat technical equipment including various types of guns and heavy machine guns. They failed to achieve what they were after in these intrusions. At a divisional commanders’ meeting held at the Army Headquarters of the puppets in October 1949, Roberts, head of the "AMAG", said: "It is true that many attacks on the region north of the 38th parallel have been launched by my orders." But he had to admit their defeat, adding that the "units have attacked the north and have spent a tremendous amount of ammunition with no result whatsoever except to suffer heavy losses".*
* "Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok on September 26, 1950" (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War b\ the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, p. 122).
The US plan for a "northward expedition" in July-August 1949 came to naught because of the unsuccessful armed intrusions of the south Korean puppet army and police.*
104
*This did not mean that the south Korean puppet army and police completely discontinued their armed intrusions into the territory north of the 38th parallel. Under the US plan for a Korean war they frequently provoked armed raids on the 38th parallel at dictates of the "AMAG" and Syngman Rhee clique till the outbreak of war in 1950 with the same purpose of confirming the "combat preparedness" of the puppet army and police, building up their "combat capacity" and securing tactical strongholds.
However, in 1950, too, the south Korean puppet army and police suffered a serious blow whenever they committed armed provocation.
From 1949 to June 24, 1950 the units of the DPRK Security Forces killed or wounded 2,650 men of the south Korean puppet army and police who intruded into the area north of the 38th parallel, captured 3,553 men and seized 2,015 heavy and light machine guns, 42,266 rifles, 2,142 revolvers, 1,351 guns of various types.
The US manoeuvres for war provocation were thwarted due to the heroic struggle of the DPRK Security Forces. This entirely was due to the wise leadership of President Kim Il Sung.
Our people under the intelligent guidance of the President strengthened the revolutionary democratic base politically and economically on the one hand and, on the other, strove harder to fortify it militarily, as the Syngman Rhee puppet clique cried ever louder for a "march north" and the puppet army and police force committed armed provocations against the area north of the 38th parallel with great frequency.
The President said:
"The history of all countries and all ages provides us with many instances where a powerful army which brags of its invincibility is taken unawares and perished when, carried away by a victory, it makes light of the enemy and neglects to prepare for battle.
"It is very dangerous to be caught unawares. When one fails to stand in constant readiness and is taken by surprise, he loses his head, is thrown into confusion, and may be defeated before he can make full use of his strength. It is therefore important to be vigilant against the enemy at all times, maintain oneself in readiness to crush any enemy attack, keep a sharp watch on every enemy movement and foil his intrigues and manoeuvres in advance." (
Kim Il Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 4, p. 414.)
To heighten vigilance against the enemy at all times and keep oneself ready for action is an important guarantee for a successful repulsion of the enemy’s surprise attack.
105
Following the teaching of the President, the DPRK took drastic measures to increase its defence capacity by firmly preparing all the people and soldiers politically and ideologically, augmenting the combat capacity of the People’s Army and Security Forces and building up the rear solidly.
Men and officers of the People’s Army and Security Forces were firmly equipped with the great Juche idea through intensified politico-ideological education in order to display infinite devotion and mass heroism in national defence. And they were educated in the revolutionary traditions, class consciousness and patriotism for them to have an indefatigable fighting spirit and a spirit of warm love for the country and hatred for the enemy.
While firmly preparing the servicemen of the Korean People’s Army and the Security Forces politically and ideologically, the DPRK took a series of measures to further increase their combat capacity, make them a revolutionary army, with each man being a match for a hundred, and strengthen the defences on the front, on the east and west coasts and in the air in order to cope with the given situation.
The DPRK Government devoted keen attention to fortifying the defences on the east and west coasts as well as those along the 38th parallel to smash the landing of the enemy’s marines and the illegal intrusion of his war vessels. It took a number of measures and turned the front and coastal areas into an impregnable fortress.
Moreover, in view of the frequent intrusion of the planes of the south Korean puppet army, the DPRK Government paid attention to the establishment of an air defence system and set up air observation posts at important points near the 38th parallel and various spots in the rear in the summer of 1949 to keep a sharp look-out for enemy aircraft.
While measures were taken to strengthen the regular armed forces, an all-people movement was conducted to help the People’s Army and Security Forces.
In July 1949 when the "AMAG" and Syngman Rhee clique were zealously inciting the puppet army and police to armed intrusions into the territory north of the 38th parallel, the DPRK Government organized the Society for Support in Defence of the Fatherland in order to push ahead dynamically with the work of defending the homeland against enemy invasion.
This society was a mass social organization aimed at lending active support in national defence. Its basic mission was to give material and spiritual support to the People’s Army and Security Forces and, at the same time,
106
expose and shatter enemy manoeuvres to undermine democratic construction.
The formation of the Society for Support in Defence of the Fatherland occasioned all the people to give greater help to the People’s Army and Security Forces. As a result, the people’s armed forces grew into an invincible force with a more solid rear.
The People’s Army and Security Forces increased their combat capacity and readied themselves fully for action, enjoying the people’s material and moral support and encouragement. It was therefore quite natural that every armed provocation of the south Korean puppet army and police was doomed to a fiasco.
The plan of the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee puppet clique for a "northward expedition" in July-August went awry with their unsuccessful armed intrusions into the territory north of the 38th parallel and their armed provocations did not expand into a total war. This was ascribable to the persevering efforts of the DPRK Government to reunify the divided country by peaceful means.
Proceeding from its lofty standpoint for the peaceful reunification of the country, the DPRK Government bore the armed intrusion of the south Korean side with patience and took countermeasures to beat back the south Korean puppet army and police with the strength of the Security Forces alone. So, at a divisional commanders’ meeting of the "ROK army" on August 2, 1949, Roberts himself had to admit this, saying: "My colleagues and me believe that the conflicts were provoked by the south Korean side and that all the attacks of the north Korean side on south Korea were countermeasures."*
* Who Began the Korean War’? edited by the Committee for A. Democratic Far Eastern Policy, Tokyo, p. 162.
Such countermeasures furnished vivid proof that the DPRK Government had been consistently striving to avoid a civil war and achieve the independent, peaceful reunification of the country. At the same time, the government showed its resolute stand that it would never tolerate any aggressive manoeuvre of the south Korean side.
Having suffered a setback in the armed intrusion in face of the undaunted struggle of the DPRK Security Forces, where one soldier is equal to one hundred of the puppet clique men, the US imperialists were compelled to reassess the "ROK army" and reexamine their plan for the July-August
107
"northward expedition". In this context Mun Hak Bong, advisor to the CIC of the US army and political advisor to Syngman Rhee, wrote: "Several conflicts brought the US Military Advisory Group to evaluate the combat capacity of the People’s Army and acknowledge the incompetency of the Syngman Rhee troops. They judged that the People’s Army was an excellent fighting unit while the Syngman Rhee troops fell far below the mark of a combat unit. This was a judgement formed after the Kaesong battle (The battle on Mt. Songak-Quoter) on July 25, 1949, and was brought to the knowledge of the US Department of Defence and MacArthur. Whether to use the Syngman Rhee troops which were below the standard of a fighting unit was a subject of serious discussion at the MacArthur Command."* Roberts had to admit their ignominious defeat in the armed intrusions, and informed the Department of Defence in Washington and MacArthur in Tokyo that they should take some urgent measures since the Syngman Rhee troops proved incapable of fighting.
*Mun Hak Bong, Exposure of the Truth about the US Imperialist Policy of Aggression against Korea and the Real Provoker of the Civil War, Pyongyang, p. 70.
This was the just reward reaped by the US rulers who had been recklessly preparing for a war in Korea. The US imperialists, however, persisted in their war preparations in a different orientation, instead of drawing a lesson from their unsuccessful armed intrusion.
6) Reframed Plan for War Provocation
The unsuccessful armed raids against the northern half of the Republic along the 38th parallel meant the complete miscarriage of the war plan of the US imperialists who had schemed to further Syngman Rhee’s "1949 plan for a north-bound expedition".
Even Roberts who had personally organized the armed raids and bragged about the "mightiness" and "invincibility" of the "ROK army", calling it "my army" or "my armed force", was obliged to admit the failure of the operational plan. Concluding that Syngman Rhee’s army was incompetent, he reported to
108
the US Department of Defence that the "ROK army can hardly be a war unit".* I
Having received Roberts’ report on the "small war" fought at the 38th parallel by the summer of 1949, the warlords of the US Defence Department had to reexamine their original war plan for "pushing the 38th parallel across the Amnok River." Unlike such megalomaniacs as Roberts and Syngman Rhee*2, they came to a conclusion that it was quite impossible for them to occupy the north with the troops of Syngman Rhee alone which were no equal to the People’s Army that had proved to be "a fine unit of war" in the battle in Kaesong.
*1. Mun Hak Bong, Exposure of the Truth about the US Imperialist Policy of Aggression against Korea and the Real Provoker of the Civil War, Pyongyang, p. 70. *2. In spite of the miserable defeat of his army in the raids at the 38th parallel, Syngman Rhee still croaked about conquering the north by force of arms. In his press interview on a US warship on October 21, 1949, which was anchoring off Inchon, he insisted that Korea should be reunified by force. He even had the cheek to gabble: "We could take Pyongyang in three days. Our troops are ready to drive into north Korea" (New York Herald Tri-bune, November 21, 1950).
Thus, the US imperialists closely reexamined their war plan and changed it in part.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"As shown by the documents seized in Seoul, the Syngman Rhee clique attempted ‘conquest of the north’ as early as 1949.
"However, the extensive guerrilla movement in south Korea, the unreliable Syngman Rhee troops and other circumstances compelled the US imperialists to put off the fratricidal war in Korea till 1950."
Conditions were still prejudicial to the execution of the war plan by the US imperialists, and fresh obstacles were laid in their way at that. So, they had to put off the date for war provocation and revised their original plan. Judging from subsequent developments, the following were the main points of their plan for a Korean war which was presumably changed at the end of 1949:
a) Korean war should be unleashed before July 1950 and, in the meantime, thoroughgoing preparations made for it in the US mainland, Japan and, more importantly, in south Korea.
109
This new plan of the US government was laid bare by the US old stooge Syngman Rhee whom they themselves had reproached for his excessive wildness and rashness. At a press interview given on December 30, 1949, Syngman Rhee betrayed his ambition to reunify the country by war in the next year, saying: "In the coming year we will strive as one to regain our lost territory. Up to now, in view of the international situation, we have pursued a peaceful policy (a war preparation policy-Quoter) corresponding to the peaceful policy of the United Nations and the United States. We must remember however that in the New Year, in accordance with the changed international situation, it is our duty to unify southern and northern Korea by our own strength."*
* Who Began the Korean War1? edited by the Commitlee for A. Democratic Far Eastern Policy, Tokyo, p. 27.
Hinting the "north-south reunification" on the lips of Syngman Rhee, Jo Pyong Ok, the then special envoy of Syngman Rhee to the United States, wrote to him: "I am of the firm conviction that unification of Korea can be brought about only through exercise of the sovereign power of our Government. Any policy of compromise or conference is out of the question.... The cold war can not go on indefinitely like this. All these world problems could not be possibly solved without a third world war .... In the meantime, our national preparedness in military power and economic strength is the most compelling task imposed upon our Government" (The report of Jo Pyong Ok, Ambassador Plenipotentiary, Personal Representative of Syngman Rhee, Permanent Observer to the UN, to Syngman Rhee, dated November 3, 1949 from Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, pp. 77-78). The then puppet Foreign Minister, Rim Pyong Jik, also prattled later on: "Needless to say, our aim is to unify the country under Syngman Rhee’s umbrella. With this in view, we started a war" (New York, Daily Worker, November 8, 1953).
Secret messages exchanged between Syngman Rhee and his subordinates show that the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique fixed 1950 as the year of turning the cold war into a hot one and manoeuvred to realize in that year their miscarried 1949 plan for "unification by force of arms" and "restoration of the lost territory".
What then made US imperialism defer the provocation of war till 1950?
First of all, it was the inadequacy of its war preparations in the light of its vaulting ambition for overseas aggression. The US rulers’ headache was the
110
US ambassador in south Korea Muccio examining preparatopns for the
armed invasion of the northern half of the Republic(July 1949)
incompetent and unreliable "ROK army" that would be directly engaged in war and the unstable strategic rear of south Korea.
The anti-US national-salvation struggle of the broad masses of the south Korean people in full support of President Kim Il Sung’s policy for independent, peaceful reunification of the country, the ceaseless coming over to the north of puppet army men in groups, the growth of the number of puppet army units joining the partisan units, the mounting patriotic sentiments among servicemen, their low fighting capacity and other circumstances in the army-all these brought the US ruling circles to consider that they could not unleash a war in Korea before taking measures for a "stable rear" and speeding up the fascistization of south Korean society. At the same time, the growth of democratic forces in Japan and the failure of its armaments expansion policy also made US imperialism keenly feel the necessity for a definite period of time. Now it included in its Korean war plan the "stabilization of the rear" of south Korea, the reinforcement of the puppet army, the revival of militarism in Japan and the like, and calculated that it would take at least more than half a year to solve those urgent tasks.*!
They, however, had to start war anyway in 1950. Such urgency came from the US economic crisis that started from the close of 1948 and became ever more serious in 1949. It was impossible to save the US economy from the sad plight without igniting conflagration somewhere on the globe for a war boom. This economic factor made it imperative for US imperialism to provoke a war in Korea within 1950.
On the other hand, the US warlords thought that the military situation in those days was still in their favour and it was therefore fully possible to attain their aim in a war of aggression if only they stepped up war preparations and made the most of them.*2
*l.In order to reinforce the "ROK army" the US government approved Syngman Rhee’s proposal for armaments expansion whose keynote was to train a 100,000-strong regular army, a 50,000-strong reserve army, a 50,000-strong police force and a 200,000-strong "militia", and included it in its war preparation programme for an early realization of that proposal. Through Acheson it also gave M. Chang an assurance that once a war broke out "the United States would give positive military assistance". ("Report of M. Chang , the then south Korean Ambassador to the United States, to Syngman Rhee dated July 13, 1949", Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, pp. 48-49).
112
*2.The following are the grounds upon which they appraised the military situation to be still in their favour at the time: "1. Taking into account the international situation, the Soviet Union will certainly not attack Korea with her own troops; 2. the Chinese Communist Army will not possibly invade Korea; 3. As the North Korean Communist Army is inferior to that of south Korea in its numerical strength as well as in its equipments, it will certainly not itself start the expedition against the South; 4. The South Korean National Army is splendid in its numerical strength and in its equipment", and so on (The statements made by Wedemeyer and a member of his staff Brig.-Gen. Timberman to M. Chang and Jo Pyong Ok, from the "Report of M. Chang, the then south Korean Ambassador to the United States, to Syngman Rhee, dated July 13, 1949," Ibid., pp. 45-46).
Taking ail these conditions into consideration, the US ruling circles decided to put off the provocation of a Korean war till 1950 and to prepare it at top speed in that interval and planned to put a period to the "hopeless cold war" and launch a hot war to occupy the whole of Korea within the first half of that year at the latest.
b) The revised war plan, unlike the 1949 plan for a "north-bound expedition" by the south Korean puppet army, laid stress on the US Army’s all-out intervention in the Korean war from the outset.
This criminal plan was brought to light by Colonel Eida who had formerly worked at Mac Arthur’s Headquarters as a specialist "familiar with the US plan for Korean unification" and served since December 1950 as a US military adviser in Iran. At an interview with staff-officers of the Iranian army, he stated: "The US plan" for Korean unification "was to occupy the territory of Korea north of the 38th parallel with Syngman Rhee troops’ direct participation and the assistance of the US ground, naval and air forces ".
An Indian newspaper reported that Colonel Eida was so "elated over his knowledge of this little-known fact that he reiterated it later when he gave a talk to the students of the Military Staff College of Iran".*i
His words laid bare that the United States had long been preparing a plan for occupation of north Korea, which was to be realized by Syngman Rhee’s provocation of a civil war followed by intervention of the US forces.
Kim Hyo Sok, former Minister of the Interior of the Syngman Rhee puppet regime, gave testimony to the change of America’s original intention-from occupying the whole of Korea by providing the Syngman Rhee puppet clique with arms to making its direct military intervention. According to him, when Royall, US Deputy Secretary of Defence, together with Sebald, Chief of Public
113
Relations Division of Mac Arthur’s Headquarters, visited Seoul in January 1950, the latter gave Syngman Rhee an assurance that "when the expedition against the North was launched, American naval and air force units stationed in Japan would be sent immediately to support south Korea. As far as naval and air forces are concerned, you have nothing to worry about".*2 His words can be construed as hinting to Syngman Rhee that "You kindle the fire! Then the United States will manage everything". In view of the fact that one year before MacArthur assured Syngman Rhee of the "defence" of south Korea by the United States, the words of Sebald, his Political Section Chief, were by no means a mere diplomatic gesture made in his personal private capacity.*3
*]. Crossroads, December 22, 1950, Bombay.
*2. "Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok on September 26, < 1950" (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, pp. 126-127). *3.In the spring of 1949 MacArthur called Syngman Rhee to Tokyo. He patted Syngman Rhee on the back, who was so absorbed in a "north-bound expedition," and declared: "You can depend upon it that I will defend south Korea as I would defend the shores of my own native land" (John Gunther, The Riddle of MacArthur, Tokyo, p. 263).
As can be seen, according to the newly revised war plan, the US imperialists were to occupy north Korea at a stroke by assigning the Syngman Rhee puppet army the task of provoking a civil war and then throwing their land, sea and air forces full-scale into it.
The American war-planners took a possible defeat of the Syngman Rhee puppet army into full consideration in that case, and the new plan was based on this premise. About this, Mun Hak Bong, Syngman Rhee’s former political adviser, said: "In fact, the US imperialists foresaw it (The low fighting efficiency of the puppet army-Quoter), so they had no purpose other than to openly make it effective for finding a chance and pretext for armed invasion on
Korea...."*i
According to Kim Hyo Sok, former Interior Minister of the puppet government, Dulles, who was in Seoul in June 1950, told Syngman Rhee and Sin Song Mo the following: "If ‘National Defence Forces’ can but hold out for two weeks, everything will go smoothly, for during this period the USA, by accusing north Korea of attacking south Korea, will compel the United Nations to take action. And in the name of United Nations, land, naval and air forces will be mobilized".*!
114
This is why the Americans called the south Korean puppet army the "one-week army" or the "two-week army".
The bourgeois press did not conceal the fact that the "National Army" was asked to play the role of holding up the advance of the north Korean troops for a week or two until the US troops in Japan could rush to the Korean front; this was all the US expected from south Korea. *3
*1."Radio Address of Mun Hak Bong, July 21, 1950" (Documentary Evidences of the
Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 104).
*2.’Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok on September 26, 1950" (Ibid., p. 128).
*3. The History of the Korean War, Korea Critique Publishing House, 1967 edition, pp.
56-57.
The operational plans were also reframed according to the newly revised war plan. The "plan for a north-bound expedition", which was drafted in the spring of 1949 to be carried out by the two Syngman Rhee puppet army corps, simultaneously with the landing operations on both the East and West coasts (Hanam-ri and Hanchon), was revised and the new plan envisaged the concentration of all the forces for the breakthrough operations at the 38th parallel.
With regard to this, Colonel Eida said that with the change of the war plan "the original plan of the United States for the troop landings on both the East and West coasts of Korea was withdrawn long before the start of military operations on June 25 and they were concentrated on the breakthrough at the 38th parallel".*!
The reasons for the change of the operational plan seemed to be that the planners thought they could not lodge an accusation of "armed invasion by the north Korean army" if they conducted landing operations in the depths of the rear on both the East and West coasts, which would not give a "ground" for "legalizing" the US troops’ all-out intervention and that they saw no chance of success in the infiltration of the Syngman Rhee puppet army into the depths of the territory of the northern half.
In connection with the revision of the operational plan they attached greater weight to Japan’s role as a base for attack and a rear base.
The new plan laid stress on the full-scale armed invasion by the US troops stationed in Japan and this inevitably increased her military value.
Thus, according to the revised plan, Japan was fixed as an important military and rear base for invasion of Korea, and measures were taken to mobilize
115
her military and economic potentialities to the full. The substances of the new plan were: to expand or establish sally bases for the US land, sea, and air forces stationed in Japan; to promote the policy of the "Far East Ordnance Factory"; to organize "Anti-Communist Crusades" with Japanese militarists; to make full use of Japan’s advanced sea-transport capacity for carrying war means, etc. The assumption of the role of the main force in the war of aggression in Korea by the US troops in Japan meant that the mainlands of Japan and the United States were designated as strategic rears. In this way, from the time of projecting the Korean war plan, the US imperialists defined the whole of the Korean peninsula as the front and followed the "wipe-out-Korea policy" to reduce "Korea to ashes and a sea of blood".*2
*1. Crossroads, December 22, 1950, Bombay.
*2. "Radio Address of Mun Hak Bong on July 21, 1950" (Documentary Evidences for the
Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, p. 101).
c) Another substance of the reframed US plan for the Korean war was diplomatic stratagem of the US State Department for giving political backing to the plan of military operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of Defence.
This operational plan was mainly designed to mould public opinion on the invented "surprise attack by the north Korean army" immediately after the provocation of civil war by the south Korean puppet army, to make the US State Department bring a suit in the UN against the "north Korean invasion" and form the "UN forces", and thus legalize the US army’s military operations in Korea under the UN signboard.
Hence, the task of the US State Department in ensuring a more "active plan for a north-bound expedition" was to organize a drafting group in advance and prepare documents to be submitted to the UN Security Council and General Assembly sessions and a "draft resolution" to be adopted there. This shameless and cunning political plot was laid bare by John Hickerson, the then Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs, during a routine hearing at the US Senate Appropriations Committee in June 1951. The following is part of his testimony which has already been widely known to the world:
"Senator Ferguson: Did you have a plan laid out as to what you were going to do when you got notice of the attack?
Hickerson: We had done some thinking about that, sir, yes.
116
Ferguson: Well, thinking is rather indefinite. What had you done on paper? What had you planned to do?
Hickerson: We have planned to take it to the United Nations for immediate action.
Ferguson: Did you have a proposed resolution drawn up?
Hickerson: We knew we were going to take it to the United Nations. We knew in general what we were going to say....We had a skeleton of a resolution here first."*!
When Ferguson asked what he had been going to do when the Soviet delegate used his veto in the UN Security Council meeting, Hickerson said:
"We were going to request the UN Secretary-General to call a special session (The US could set its voting machine in motion, as the decision by majority principle was applicable here-Quoter). We had organized a small group to draft a statement which we would issue in case the Soviet delegate used his veto."*2
As can be seen, even before the outbreak of the Korean war the US State Department concluded that the DPRK was the "aggressor", finished preparations for bringing the case to the United Nations and drew up a "draft resolution" to be submitted to it. Moreover, it decided upon what step it would take in case the Soviet delegate exercised a veto. Under the new plan the US State Department assumed the disgraceful role of a thief that turns on a master with a club. All the fact shows that the US imperialists did not hesitate to take any base means to attain their aggressive goal in Korea.
*1. The Record of a Routine Hearing at the US Senate Appropriations Committee on the Budget of the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce and Courts for 1952, p. 1,086. *2.Ibid.,p. 1,087.
The December 22, 1950 issue of Crossroads carried the following article: Hearing the comment that "if the Soviet delegate were present in the discussion of the Security Council meeting and used his veto against the US plan, even the United States could not launch an open attack on north Korea," Colonel Eida, US military adviser in Iran, cynically said: "Even in that case the situation would be little different and the US army would have advanced and landed in Korea."
To bring its political plot into practice the US State Department needed a third person who should present a false report on "north Korea’s aggression". The US State Department chose the "United Nations Commission on Korea" to
117
play that role. And it planned to place a "military inspector" in it and give the commission additional rights, that is, "to supervise the public peace" along the 38th parallel and "to observe, and report on, the development of the situation which might cause an armed conflict".*
This was necessary to carry out its sinister design to shift the responsibility for the armed invasion at the 38th parallel on to north Korea first of all and, when it started a war, to get the "Commission" and its "inspector" to prepare an "observation report" in advance and "bring" it before the UN under instructions from US imperialism so that the responsibility for it might be placed on north Korea in the name of the UN.
* Due to the tense situation this plan was executed immediately. According to the confidential letter of November 3, 1949, sent by Jo Pyong Ok to Syngman Rhee, the UN replenished, under the pressure of the United States, the "United Nations Commission on Korea" with the countries more passively obedient to the United States. Syria which was regarded as a "troublesome member country" was dropped, Australia made to withdraw and such a satellite country as Turkey nominated in lieu of Syria. And on October 21, 1949, the UN assigned the new "task of observing military conflict" to the "United Nations Commission on Korea". At that time, the US delegate said: With this additional authority, "the UN could officially receive, in case of a conflict, all necessary informations on it and its cause from a designated body".
From this, one can see why the United States forced the UN to take such a measure. It was a link in the chain for the criminal scheme of the US imperialists to fabricate a legal ground for bringing the Korean problem to the United Nations and wage the Korean war in the name of the UN from the outset by giving "objectivity" and "’legitimacy" to their cooked up "situation report". In other words, the United States was now able to freely distort the Korean situation in favour of their aggressive policy, taking advantage of the additional right given to the commission. The commission’s June 26, 1950, report on the "invasion of north Korea", submitted to the UN Secretary-General, is based on such preliminary arrangements. (US Department of State, The Record on Korean Unification, 1943-1960, p. 85.)
d) Another important content of the new war plan was the scheme of intelligence work.
Among the secret documents seized in June 1950, when Seoul was liberated, were: "Schemes (A) and (B) of Intelligence Work for the Year 1950" made by "Section III, Intelligence Bureau, Army Headquarters" and "Scout
118
Unit Scheme for March-May, 1950" prepared by the "Reconnaissance Room, Section III," etc.*i According to this "Scheme of Intelligence Work", agents and saboteurs were to be dispatched to the 23 main cities and county seats including Pyongyang to collect secret military intelligence, to destroy all railway trunk-lines, power stations, radio broadcasting stations, and major factories and enterprises, and to burn up headquarters of democratic parties and even cultural establishments like the National Art Theatre. It contained also a sinister plot of mass murder against the urban population by bacteria to be spread over the nine major cities and the sources of water supply in the northern half and a detailed plan to assassinate important personages of the Party, government and army.
The "Scout Unit Scheme" covered not only strategic reconnaissance of all production and transportation facilities and means in the northern half but also the collections of intelligence of the military establishment and the army’s disposition, and reconnaissance of natural features and objects including mountains, coasts, rivers, ports, lakes, etc. In preparation for the future "north-bound expedition" it also planned to set up "organic permanent cells" that would play the role of guide in the event of "advance". All these schemes were to be basically carried out by May, 1950.
The orientation and contents of their intelligence work against the northern half of the Republic show that the chief objective of the criminal "schemes of work" was to weaken and destroy the political, economic and military potentialities of the northern half, cause uneasiness in the minds of people by spreading false rumours for psychological warfare, and create favourable conditions for their overall military operations in the areas of the northern half, by reconnoitering the topography and setting up "permanent cells".*2
* 1. Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War b\ the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, pp. 132-210.
*2.The "policy" expressed in the introduction of this scheme clearly shows that the aim of the "Scheme of Intelligence Work" was to make preparations for war. The introduction of the Scheme (A) wrote: "... Extermination of organizations of north Korea shall be aimed at by means of secret warfares, and with might and main successful intelligence work shall be carried out for a rapid frustration of the said organizations for the restoration of lost territories." Referring to the completion of the preparation for attack and for joining it, by May, 1950, the introduction of the Scheme (B) wrote: "This Section III is going to inflict, by May this year, epoch-making destruction, by intrigues and provocations, upon
119
the north Korean hordes.... At the same time, this section is going to frustrate the movement of the communists, especially of the army and from being defensive we change into the offensive... and stir up revolts within the northern territory." (Ibid, pp. 132-155.)
The "Scheme of Intelligence Work" of the puppet Army Headquarters was drawn up at the orders and instigation of the US brass hats or in their personal presence. This was well proved by the fact that at the office of the Army Chief of the Staff, Wedemeyer instructed M. Chang "to send highly trained, trustworthy and competent young men to north Korea to infiltrate among the Koreans there, sow distrust in the communist cause and the people’s government and prepare the way for the Republic" and he promised "to do his utmost and consult with Secretary of State Acheson".*!
In fact, in order to strengthen their intelligence operation against north Korea, the US imperialists not only utilized the south Korean puppets but they themselves undertook it.
As far back as 1949 the United States had moved its "CIA Far Eastern Affairs Office" from Manila to Tokyo, and Willoughby, Director of the Information Department (G-2) of MacArthur’s Headquarters, set up the "Korean Liaison Office" (KLO) in June 1949 as an intelligence agency in south Korea. Every month he received some 100 pieces of "intelligence information" on an average from this agency and sent them to Washington. The information was collected systematically from the agents in the "Korean secret institutions dispatched by MacArthur’s Headquarters in Tokyo" and were sent to Washington. It is said that their number reached 1,195 in all, and almost all of their contents were related to the provocation of Korean war envisaged in the "Scheme of Intelligence Work" laid out by the puppet Army Headquarters.*2
All these facts show that in the US plan for war provocation stress was laid on the intelligence and subversive activities and sabotages against the northern half of the Republic.
*1. "Letter from M. Chang to Syngman Rhee, dated April 6, 1949" (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 9). *2. Charles A. Willoughby, MacArthur 1941-1951, pp. 351-354, Hidden History of the Korean War, Seoul, pp. 3-10.
Enumerated above are the substances of the Korean war provocation plan, the most shameless and criminal one ever known in human history, which the US
120
imperialists finally worked out by revising and supplementing the original aggressive plan after their complete failure in the armed raids at the 38th parallel.
The Japanese militarists had a hand in drafting this criminal war plan. They played an important role in it as the core staff members of MacArthur’s Headquarters. This was already mentioned previously. The Japanese officers who worked in these secret organizations were all war criminals and former staff-officers with rich experience in aggression on Korea and the continent. They collected, on the orders of their master, the documents pertinent to the military operations of their major aggressive wars from the Sino-Japanese War to the Russo-Japanese, Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars and, on this basis, mapped out a plan for continental invasion suited to the changed situation. This plan envisaged, first of all, the provocation of a war in Korea.*!
The Korean war plan, a product of US-Japan conspiracy, was drawn up between late 1949 and early 1950, and it was soon ratified and hurriedly put into practice.
In his confidential letter of January 11, 1950, addressed to Syngman Rhee, M. Chang, the then south Korean Ambassador in Washington, wrote: "I may give you some encouraging news which I have received confidentially from a top level, reliable source in the Pentagon. I am informed that the State Department and the Pentagon are planning a firm stand with respect to the US Oriental policy. In this anti-communist plan Korea will occupy an important position." Then he added that "there will be no delay at Pearl Harbor in installing guns on the Bakdu-san", for Truman’s order "will remove the principal and important obstacle".*2 By "the principal and important obstacle" he meant the passive attitude manifested among some of the US ruling circles towards the "north-bound expedition" by the armed south Korean puppets. The Pentagon’s "firm stand" towards the US Oriental policy under consideration was a synonym of the stand favouring the "unification by march north" through a war, which was so much desired by Syngman Rhee. The letter hinted that Korea occupied an important position in the "anti-communist plan" for continental aggression against China and the USSR and that the Korean problem could be solved by "installing guns on the Bakdu-san", in other words, by unleashing a war and occupying the northern half of the Republic. This was suggestive of the US government’s plan for a Korean war.
American newspapers, too, wrote that the plan "was unanimously approved in January by the Joint Chiefs of Staff ‘.*3 Both the secret letter of M. Chang and the reports of American newspapers indicated one thing, that is, the completion of a Korean war plan by the US.
121
Syngman Rhee’s letter to Oliver, an American, his private political adviser,
dated September 30,1949
His private American political adviser Oliver’s letter to
Syngman Rhee, dated October 10,1949
South Korean ambassador in the US, M. Chang’s letter to Syngman Rhee,
dated January 11,1950
* \.Visits of Persons, Japanese magazine, No. 9. 1964, p. 65.
*2."Letter from M. Chang to Syngman Rhee, dated January 11, 1950" (Documentary Evidences for Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 79.) *3. New York Herald Tribune, June 26, 1950.
7) Large-scale "Purge" Campaign for "Stabilization of the Rear"
Fascistization of South Korean Society
In the revised plan for war provocation, "stabilization of the rear" constituted a basic task of war preparation, and fascistization of south Korean society occupied the first place in it. Therefore, the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique became more frantic with the expansion of armaments in order to complete war preparations and, at the same time, conducted a large-scale "purge" campaign, hurrying up with the fascistization of south Korean society under the pretext of "stabilization of the rear".
President Kim Il Sung said:
"It is universal knowledge that the Syngman Rhee clique is dead set against the country’s peaceful reunification and has long since prepared for civil war. It made a frenzied effort to expand armaments and madly prepared its rear by bleeding the people in south Korea white. Through unheard-of terrorist suppression, it outlawed all democratic political parties and social organizations in south Korea, arrested, imprisoned and killed patriotic, progressive personalities, and ruthlessly suppressed the slightest manifestation of discontent against its reactionary regime." (Kim Il Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 6, pp. 8-9.)
Imperialists inevitably take the road of fascistization in their war preparations. The US imperialists schemed to "stabilize" the rear by cruelly suppressing all the patriotic, democratic forces, which they thought to be deterrent to the completion of their war preparations, and stepping up the fascistization of south Korean society.
With a view to hastening the process of this fascistization the US imperialists instructed the Syngman Rhee clique to concoct, first of all, various
125
evil laws and then turn its suppression against the patriotic, democratic forces.
Acting upon its master’s instruction, it enacted the notorious "National Security Law" in November 1948. And every act and word favouring the reunification of the country and the democratization of south Korean society was suppressed as an "anti-government crime" and numerous patriots and other people were arrested, imprisoned and slaughtered.
At a meeting held on June 1949 to deliberate over an initial measure for the so-called "north-bound expedition", Muccio, US Ambassador to south Korea, instructed Roberts, head of the "AMAG", Beird, police adviser to the south Korean puppet government, Sin Song Mo, Minister of Defence, Kim Hyo Sok, Minister of the Interior, Kwon Sung Ryol, Minister of Justice, and others to energetically push forward the fascistization of south Korean society. He said: "At this moment, when we are going to carry out the north-bound expedition in July or August, it is of utmost importance to enforce the State Security Law draconically, and to arrest en masse forces opposed to the government and elements of the South Korean Workers’ Party, and completely frustrate their veiled activities, though, of course, other preparations are also necessary. Therefore, I request you to put stress on this arrest."*
* "Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok on September 26, 1950" (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, p. 114).
In the wake of Muccio’s instruction, the "National Security Law" was applied relentlessly and the fascistization of south Korean society actively pushed ahead.
According to the report of the "United Nations Commission on Korea" of September 5, 1950 submitted to the 5th Session of the UN General Assembly, the number of people arrested and imprisoned in the year of 1949 alone under the "National Security Law" concocted by the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee puppet clique ran into 118,621 including 13 "assemblymen".*
* "Report of the United Nations Commission on Korea," September 5,
1950.
Besides the "National Security Law," the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee puppet clique promulgated in succession various evil laws including the so-called "National Public Service Law", "Provisional Postal Censorship Law"
126
and "Education Law", etc., to deprive the people of their elementary human rights and freedom.*
*David W. Conde wrote on the then fascist suppression of patriotic people in south Korea: "...South Korea has turned into a terror-ridden military prison. A far greater number of policemen than that mobilized by the Japanese before were used in ruling the masses of the people. Outside the police station a young man was standing guard with a rifle to "assist’ the police. All the jails were overcrowded with 30,000 prisoners, so, special tents were pitched for their accommodation.... "Torture has become a commonplace in south Korea....
"During the eight months before April 30, 1949, the number of Koreans arrested by the Syngman Rhee police reached 89,710. According to the Korean sources, the figure stood at 478,000 at the end of 1949. Out of them, 154,000 were thrown into Syngman Rhee’s prisons and other 93,000 sentenced to death or slaughtered. Nineteen assemblymen were also arrested....Even the youth suffered from its aftereffects. Thus, during the first three months of 1949, 2,766 cases of juvenile delinquency were registered. It was confirmed that of them, 1,800 were charged with violation of the ‘National Security Law’. Accordingly, Syngman Rhee oppressed Korean people’s nationalism far more skilfully than the Japanese had once done, wielding laws that are executed by the soldiers armed and fed by the United States." {David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. I, Tokyo, pp. 553-54.)
The repression of patriotic people was intensified as never before and the activities of all the democratic political parties and social organizations were strictly prohibited. In the period of September-October 1949 alone, as many as 132 political parties and public organizations were forcibly disbanded.
The suppression of democratic publications was also intensified. As early as 1946, more than 10 newspapers including Haebang llbo, organ of the Communist Party, Choson Inminbo and Hyondae llbo, etc., were discontinued. In early 1949,,the "Press Law" was enacted to completely trample underfoot even the elementary freedom of speech and the press.
Along with their intensified suppression of patriotic, democratic publications, the US imperialists increased their reptile publications in a big way and raised as never before their war and "anti-communist" clamours against the nothern half of the Republic.
The fabrication and enforcement of various evil laws including the "National Security Law" further accelerated the process of the fascistization of
127
south Korean society, creating a horrible atmosphere like that on the eve of war where fascism and terrorism were rampant.
Campaigns for "Purge in the Rear" and "Purge in the Army"
Where there is oppression, there always is resistance, and where there is resistance, there is bound to be a revolutionary struggle. This is a law of historical development.
The south Korean people waged a vigorous struggle in resistance to the harsh fascist and terrorist rule of the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee puppet clique. They turned out, as one, in the struggle against the US occupation of south Korea and new war provocation manoeuvres and for the independent, peaceful reunification of the fatherland.
The struggle of the south Korean people gradually developed into a people’s guerrilla struggle following the national-salvation struggle of February 7, 1948, and the popular uprising in Jeju Island of April 3. This struggle rapidly expanded since the October soldiers1 riot in Ryosu.
On October 20, 1948, 3,000 soldiers of the 14th Regiment of the puppet army stationed in Ryosu rose in a riot in protest against the order on the slaughter of people in Jeju Island. In response to this struggle, the people in the Ryosu and Sunchon areas got up an armed riot against the Syngman Rhee puppet government and in support of the DPRK. The armed ranks, with their bases in Mts. Paegun and Jiri, dealt successive blows at the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee puppet clique in and around these areas.
The ranks of the people’s guerrilla units swelled with each passing day. In January 1949, large guerrilla units were operating around Mt. Jiri, in and around Mt. Odae, and in the area of Kyongsang Province.
In particular, after President Kim Il Sung, the sun of the nation, formed the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland and advanced, through its declaration, the DPRK ‘Government’s proposal for independent, peaceful reunification on June 25, 1949, the south Korean people fought an ever more vigorous struggle in support of the proposal. The south Korean workers staged a general strike on July 20, 1949, in support of the proposal for peaceful reunification, which developed into an armed struggle against the reactionary ruling system of the south Korean puppet clique. The peasants in different parts of south Korea joined the struggle to fight for the peaceful
128
reunification and against the anti-popular menoeuvres of the Syngman Rhee puppet clique. They started a riot in July 1949 against the "collection of summer crops" and joined the armed struggle of the people’s guerrilla units.
Soldiers of the south Korean puppet army refused to be victims of the US imperialist aggression and war policy and came over individually or collectively to the northern half of the Republic, or joined the people’s guerrilla units, and their number increased rapidly.
On December 6, 1948, part of the Taegu Regiment of the puppet army which was out to "mop up" the Jirisan Guerrilla Unit rose in revolt in Talsong of North Kyongsang Province and, on the 20th, some of the soldiers of the 6th Infantry Regiment of the puppet army went over to the side of the people’s guerrilla units in protest against the "purge in the army". In May 1949, a battalion stationed in Chunchon and another battalion in Hongchon went over to the northern half of the Republic. Around that time, puppet naval vessels including /./. and a military plane F.P.M. 110 did the same.
The vigorous anti-US, national-salvation struggle of the south Korean people and the incidents of puppet soldiers’ desertion to the northern half of the Republic dealt a telling blow to the US imperialists and the puppet clique in their preparation for a new war, and they constituted a great obstacle and menace to the "stability" of their rear.
In these circumstances, the US imperialists thought that in order to accelerate new war preparations, it was of utmost importance to guarantee "stability" of their rear through a sweeping "purge".
The "rear purge" campaign of the US and south Korean puppet clique was launched on the direct order of Truman.
Informed of the successive serious failures of the south Korean puppet clique in its armed provocations at the 38th parallel, Truman said in early 1949 that "we knew that Rhee’s government would be in grave danger if the military units of north Korea were to start a full-scale attack" and that "for that reason we wanted him to make his own area (south Korea-Quoter) as stable as it could be made, and, in addition, we wanted him to bring a measure of prosperity to the peasants that would make them turn their backs on the communist agitators".*
* Truman, Memoirs, Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 232.
What then did Truman’s words "peace" and the "prosperity" of the farmers mean?
129
In a word, it meant a link in the chain of the US war preparation machinations to "stabilize the rear" by suppressing all the patriotic, democratic forces that seemed to come in the way of their war preparations and, particularly, by "stabilizing" the out-of-the-way villages through the forcible removal of the peasants supporting the people’s guerrilla units to plains by appeasement and deceptive means in order to cut their contacts with those units.
On the order of Truman, US Ambassador to south Korea Muccio and head of the "AMAG" Roberts often called the puppet Defence Minister, Interior Minister and others to the US embassy and held secret counsels in an attempt to "liquidate" patriotic people and people’s guerrilla units. In April 1949, at the US embassy Muccio instructed Beird, police adviser to the Syng-man Rhee puppet government, and Kim Hyo Sok, Minister of the Interior: "In putting down and crushing the counterforces so as to maintain power and ensure public peace, you should think solely of achieving the expected results and you need not be concerned about right or wrong of the means and ways."*
* "Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok on September 26, 1950" (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, p. 110).
In late August 1949, at the US embassy where Ambassador Muccio, police adviser Beird, Kim Hyo Sok and others were present, Roberts called them to account for the ignominious failures in the armed attacks at the 38th parallel. He added that since "there will be a north-bound expedition at any time it is essential to keep the rear under close control" and instructed them to strengthen the "military drill of the police to put down the guerrillas active in the rear and to maintain public peace in general".*
* Ibid., pp. 116-117.
In this manner, Muccio and Roberts intended to execute Truman’s "rear stabilization" order by strengthening the "maintenance of public peace" in the rear and the suppression of the people’s guerrilla units in preparation for the "north-bound expedition".
The "purge" campaign for a "stable rear" was unprecedentedly cruel.
The US imperialists, first of all, harshly suppressed the revolutionary advance of the south Korean people and further intensified the "punitive operations" against the people’s guerrilla units.
130
The nithlessness of suppressive atrocities committed by the US imperialists against the revolutionary advance of the south Korean people was laid bare clearly by their repression of the April 1948 revolt of the people in Jeju Island against the ruinous May 10 separate elections of the Syngman Rhee puppet clique, and the mutiny of the soldiers in Ryosu and Sunchon in October that year.
When the revolt of the people of Jeju Island started Roberts personally drew up a plan for "punitive operations" and mobilized American submarines and other warships to ship the army and police to the island to put down the insurgents. According to the testimony of Kim Hyo Sok, in February 1949 Roberts and Muccio met with the puppet leaders-Syngman Rhee, Sin Song Mo, Kim Hyo Sok and others-and instructed them to quell the uprising of the Jeju islanders, saying: "From a strategic point of view, Jeju Island is an extremely important point. Therefore the suppression of the revolt in Jeju Island is an imperative prerequisite to the preparation of a north-bound expedition" and it was also a strategic point that "should be secured for the relations of liaison with Japan". *i In a meeting held in the office of the head of the "AMAG" in February that year, in which were present Beird, Sin Song Mo, Chae Pyong Dok, Kim Hyo Sok and others, Roberts said: "Now we are going to send police reinforcement to Jeju Island to put down the riot there. Since the transportation is to be carried out by US submarines and other warships you had better make other preparations to the full without caring for the transportation." On the order of the agents on the spot, 3,000 puppet soldiers and 1,200-strong "police reinforcements" were carried to Jeju Island by US warships including submarines. Roberts personally commanded the "mopping-up" operations against the people’s resistance in Jeju Island.*2
*l.ibid.,p. ill. *2./&/In the suppression of the Jeju islanders committed under the direct command of Muccio and Roberts, from April 1948 to 1950 over 70,000 guiltless people were massacred and houses in 295 villages out of 400 in all burnt down.*
*Even according to the data issued by the south Korean puppet government in April 1949, the enemy burned down 20,000 dwelling houses out of 57.000 in Jeju Island and killed
131
33,000 inhabitants. (David W. Conde. An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. I. Tokyo, p. 481.)
The suppression of the soldiers’ mutiny in Ryosu and Sunchon in October 1948, too, was conducted under the direct command of Roberts. Even aircraft, tanks and warships were set in motion. In Sunchon city, the enemy arrested 300 innocent people and locked them up in a "national elementary school" in Sunchon County. The following day they shot 200 of them in the same place.
Even according to the doctored figure published by the south Korean puppet government, more than 6,000 people were killed and over 5,000 houses burned down by the US army and the puppet army.
On January 27, 1949, the capital sentences passed on the 69 soldiers accused of participation in the mutiny in Ryosu and Sunchon were executed under the direction of the US military adviser to the Second Brigade of the puppet army. About this, the report of 971st CIC Detachment, Taejon District of the US Army, wrote:
"Each fired the allotted rounds into the prisoners assigned. One clip of M-l was used in each volley. Then the M.P. officer in charge of the executions went down the line and fired from one to three rounds in the soldiers that showed signs of life. In some instances he had to fire on the second time, making three times in all. After each group was pronounced dead by the medical officer, the bodies were carried from the posts to the pit to the side of the execution scene. Firing was heard in the pit, evidently on those that still showed signs of life.
"Four groups were executed, the first group totalled 20, the second 18, the third 18, and the fourth 13, totalling 69 in all."*
* "Report of 971st CIC Detachment, Taejon District of the US Army, dated January 27, 1949." (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War hy the US Imperialists , Pyongyang, p. 4.)
Commenting on these atrocities at the end of November 1948, Ambassador Muccio chattered: "1 think it a wise measure to have disposed of the suspects with resolution. ... It should be rather praised than blamed that suppression was made effective by a drastic measure."* This remark of his revealed the aggressive nature of the US imperialists who do manslaughter as their main business.
* "Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok on September 26, 1950" (Ibid., p. 112).
132
The "mopping-up" of the people’s guerrilla units by the US held a very important place in their "rear purge" manoeuvrings.
This was because the revolutionary advance of the south Korean people was more pronounced, anti-government forces grew in the puppet army, and there were strong tendencies to joining the people’s guerrilla units. It was also because the operations of the guerrilla units grew more active with each passing day. The "mopping-up" of the people’s guerrilla units arose as a most important strategic task and urgent question especially after the July-August "north-bound expedition" plan was postponed to 1950.
Therefore, in "stabilizing" their strategic rear through a "rear purge" campaign, the US imperialists put the main stress on the intensification of their "punitive" offensive against the people’s guerrilla units.
This large-scale "punitive" offensive, too, was planned and carried out by the "AMAG".
Following the instruction of Washington, head of the "AMAG" Roberts called the bigwigs of the south Korean puppet government and army together in the autumn of 1949 for the "Taejon conference," where he established "punitive headquarters" and ordered it to intensify the "mopping-up" offensive against the people’s guerrilla units.
Under Roberts’ "mopping-up" plan, the "general punitive headquarters" was set up in Taejon to direct the "suppression of partisans" in a unified way. Besides, five "mopping-up areas" of Mt. Jiri, Mt. Thaebaek, Mt. Odae, the East coast, and Center were designated and each of these areas had separate "punitive headquarters" and many divisions of the puppet army under its control. The enemy mobilized these troops and tens of thousands of puppet policemen and terrorists for the "mopping up" of the people’s guerrilla units.
Roberts told the soldiers of the puppet army mobilized in the "mopping-up" of the guerrilla units "to do everything and use any means that seem to be effective or tactically necessary for conquering the partisans."*
* Ibid., p. 118.
Even aircraft and tanks were mobilized in the "punitive" operations.
As a result, numerous people were killed and houses burned down during the large-scale "punitive" offensives against the people’s guerrilla units, such as the "March Offensive" against the Jejudo People’s Guerrilla Unit, the "April Offensive" against the Jirisan Guerrilla Unit and the "mopping-up operations"
133
in 1949 against the guerrilla units in the areas of Mts. Odae, Thaebaek and Sobaek.
In October 1949, Roberts called the chieftains of the south Korean puppet gang to the office of the head of the "AMAG" and instructed them to burn up the mountain villages for an intensified "mopping up" of the people’s guerrilla units. In January the following year, he ordered them to evacuate by force the inhabitants of the mountain villages,saying: "The method of evacuation" of the population of the mountain villages "brought about substantially the same result as the success of the mopping up of the guerrilla units.... Hurry up with the evacuation".*
* Ibid., p. 119.
The forced removal, wholesale slaughter, massive incendiarism which the US imperialists employed for intensified "punitive" operations against the people’s guerrilla units-these were what Truman meant by his fine words about the "prosperity" of the peasants; they were the essence of the "rear purge" campaign of the US imperialists who were then running amuck for war preparations.
Due to the US imperialists’ large-scale "punitive" and "scorched-earth" operations against the people’s guerrilla units, all mountain villages in south Korea were reduced to ashes and countless inhabitants were killed or forcibly evacuated. In the period from December 1949 to February 1950, 47,572 civilian houses were burned down and 88,237 households forcibly removed by the "anti-partisan operations". In the period from July to mid-December 1949 alone, as many as 62,000 patriotic people were killed mercilessly. Over 40,000 people were killed in the "winter punitive operations" carried out between December 1949 and January 1950. In seven counties including Mungyong and Ponghwa of North Kyongsang Province alone, more than 19,000 innocent people fell beneath the enemy’s bayonets.
In January 1950, at the US embassy Muccio produced before the leaders of the puppet clique a direct photo showing the bestial atrocities of the US and Syng-man Rhee clique who took over 50 people, including women and children, of a mountain village in Mungyong County to a hollow and killed them in a group with a machine gun. He inspired them to manslaughter, with the following words: "In a humanistic point of view, such an act may be regarded as an evil doing, but it is indispensable for mopping up the guerrilla units. If you wish to attain your
134
goals you should keep in your minds that such a thing may happen any time".*l To achieve the desired end, one should not hesitate to exhaust every means and way and should sacrifice even ethics and morality-this was the logic of the American "gentlemen" who advocated "humanism". That was why Muccio and Roberts highly praised the Chief of the General Staff of the puppet army and a murderer of his fellow countrymen, Chae Pyong Dok, saying that he was, so to speak, "a model chief of a police station in an uncivilized country" and his "cruelty and slaughter are a pattern of soldier’s determination". They reported it to the US Department of Defence. *2
*i.ibid.,p. 120.
*2.Mun Hak Bong, Exposure of the Truth about the US Imperialist Policy of Aggression
against Korea and the Real Provoker of the Civil War , Pyongyang, pp. 70-78.
Along with the "purge in the rear", a "purge in the army" was carried out in a big way with a view to "readjusting" the ranks of the "ROK army", a stronghold of colonial rule and a shock troop for aggression, and to accelerate war preparations.
The so-called "purge in the army" was conducted in the name of removal of "communists" from the ranks of the puppet army, but it actually was directed against the patriotic and progressive officers and men.
The growth of the anti-government forces within the puppet army, their joining with the people’s guerrilla units and the increasing cases of going over to the side of the northern half of the Republic were, properly speaking, the inevitable outcome of the US colonial enslavement and war policies. However, the US imperialists, who were accustomed to reverse black and white, described all the incidents within the puppet army as being attributable to the so-called "acts of the communists". At the same time, they calculated that the "unreliable" puppet army could be made a reliable "combat unit" through removal of the "communists", and effectively used in realizing their aggressive plan for a war which they would start shortly against the northern half of the Republic.
It was for this purpose that a large-scale "purge" campaign was launched in the puppet army to suppress the patriotic youth within it and the wave of "purge" swept far and wide from the middle and low-ranking officers to the rank-and-file.
Even according to the figure published by the enemy, the number of officers and men who had been purged as "communists" by the end of July 1949
135
was 4,749. Mostly they were ordinary soldiers, yet the number of high-ranking officers such as a brigade chief of staff and a regimental commander and officers both senior and junior, including battalion and company commanders, ran to several hundreds. Afterwards "purges" were conducted on several occasions before the outbreak of the war; over 8,000 officers and men of the puppet army were purged, labelled as "Red", and patriotic-minded young people were frequently murdered. (South Korea-The Korean War, Part I, Kara Bookshop, 1976 edition, p. 342.)
While carrying on the "purge" in the puppet army the US imperialists "replaced" commanding officers with reactionaries and traitors to the nation by recruiting a large number of members and leaders of reactionary organizations including the "Association of Young Men from the Northwest" and promoting them to officers at all levels.
As seen above, due to the US imperialists’ large-scale campaigns of "purge in the rear and in the army" launched under the pretext of the "stabilization of the rear", as many as 102,000 people were cold-bloodedly slaughtered during the seven months from July 1949 to January 1950 alone. The figure shows that 9,000 more people were killed than during the four years till July 1949 from the occupation of south Korea by the US imperialists. What does this fact reveal?
The daily increasing scale of the "purge" campaign for the alleged "stabilization of the rear" and the worsening of its cruelty clearly proved that in the period between 1949 and early 1950 the US imperialists had made preparations for a new war on a full scale in the last stage.
8) War Preparations in the US Mainland and Japan
According to the revised war plan, the US power elites in Washington concentrated their efforts in war preparations in the US mainland and Japan, while pushing them forward in south Korea.
It was attributable to the facts that since an all-out armed invasion by the US imperialists was made the pivot of the reframed plan for war provocation, the US mainland and Japan became the strategic rear bases for the Korean war and, in particular, that Japan was fixed as a striking, repair and supply base for
136
the Korean front.
In this way, the completion of the plan for a Korean war gave impetus to the preparations which the US imperialists had made in real earnest since the proclamation of the "Truman doctrine".
War Preparations in the Mainland of the United States
After announcing the "Truman doctrine", a plan for world domination, the US rulers defined a Korean war as the prelude to the "crusade expedition" for its execution and pushed forward war preparations at a new stage in the US mainland.
Above all, they stepped up fascistization of society as a part of war preparations.
Here the US monopoly capitalists and their spokesmen tried to justify their terrorist rule and war policy, using the repression of the labour movement as an important political and ideological means.
The first step taken in the United States for its fascistization was to quell the labour movement. For this the US government had already framed the "Taft-Hartley Act" in 1947. By this evil law the capitalists became able to exploit the working class as much as they wished for larger profits, taking such high-handed measures as to outlaw workers’ strikes, order a ban on it and break off collective bargaining. Worse still, the working class was denied even an elementary right to the labour movement for existence and democracy.
While repressing the labour movement, the US ruling circles also harshly put down the communist movement in order to accelerate fascistization of society.
Following the institution of the *Taft-Hartley Act" the US government, in an effort to curb the activities of the Communist Party, restored the notorious "Smith Act" which had been suspended ever since 1940. On December 20, 1948 it illegally arrested members of the National Committee of the Communist Party of the United States on the false charges of "having united themselves in instigating and advocating the overthrow of the US government by real power or violence" and brought them before the court in October 1949.*
* The testimony given by Eugene Denis, Secretary-General of the Communist Party of the
137
United States, at the trial against them in October 1949 fully exposed the illegality of the US government’s dealings. He pointed out the procurators" failure to give any evidence to show that the Communist Party had "instigated or plotted to organize uprising, rebellion or riot" or that it had "conspiringly supplied weapons, taught how to use them or insisted on treachery, rebellion and disturbance against the United States." (Eugene Denis. Ideas Cannot Be Put in Jail, New York, 1950.)
Such US machinations to put down the communist movement even on false charges, investing the capitalists with the right to repress the labour movement, showed the rapid fascistization of the US society with the Korean war at hand.
What was important in war preparation in the United States was the armaments expansion along with fascistization of society.
In 1948 the US government embarked upon the road of large-scale armaments expansion unknown in the peacetime history of the United States.
Later, Markertroy, the then US Secretary of Defence, recalled: "The year of 1948 was a year of great historic change in our country’s military and foreign policies.... The United States Senate passed a peacetime conscription law for the first time in the history of the United States on June 10, 1948, and on the foilowing day adopted the Vandenburg resolution by an overwhelming majority. These decisions, indeed, represented a map showing the course of common security for the United States and nations of the free world, and we have followed this course ever since."* The year of 1948 was really a year of great change in the armaments expansion and war preparations of the United States.
* Zenei, No. 6, Tokyo, I960.
In the 1948-1949 fiscal year the direct military expenditure out of the US state budget
swelled to 22,000 million dollars, from 11,700 million dollars in the 1947-1948 fiscal
year. This was a 2.2-fold increase over that before World War II.
A budget for the army held 45 per cent of the total military expenditure in 1939 and
increased to 65 per cent in 1948.
A budget for the navy showed 633, 219, 988 dollars in 1939 and increased to 3,704, 950,
000 dollars or about six times in 1949.
A budget for the air force also increased from 586, 184, 000 dollars in 1938 to 3, 233.
200, 000 dollars or about six times in 1949. (Korean Central Yearbook , Pyongyang.
1950, pp. 675-76.)
138
With an increase of military expenses those industrial branches of military significance were expanded one-sidedly, a greater quantity of half-finished goods and raw materials directed to the non-productive munitions field and a vast amount of them piled up for a strategic reserve.
The US government reinforced the armed forces in a big way, allotting a staggering amount of dollars for war expenditure.
Right before the end of World War II the United States had already made bellicose general Collins draw up the so-called ‘’Collins Plan", a plan for expansion of armaments. The plan envisaged to increase the number of ground and air forces to f ,070, 000 and navy and marine corps to 662,000, thus bringing the total number of servicemen on active duty to 1,732,000, and to attain the goal through a conscription system. It was indeed a rarely-seen militarist plan aimed at maintaining huge standing armed forces in peacetime by enforcing a conscription system. It was soon put into practice with the Korean war ahead. The US government, in defiance of opposition of its people, enacted a "Conscription Law" on June 10. 1948 and then accelerated the expansion of the armed forces, beefing up the air and naval forces large scale. As a result, the number of armed forces chalked up the all-peacetime high in the history of the United States.*
*In 1949 the number of the US army rose to one million, which meant a 5.5-fold increase over 180,400 in the peaceful year of 1938 before World War II. Before World War I the US naval force ranked third in the world. But the tonnage of its war vessels increased to one million tons in 1939 after the war and 3.8 million tons in 1947, to come out top of the capitalist powers. Accordingly, the US naval force rose from over 107,700 strong in 1939 to 500.000 strong in March 1949. After the announcement of the "Truman doctrine" as a plan for world domination, the US ruling circles went the length of openly putting up the slogan "US navy, fight a decisive offensive battle!" instead of the former deceptive slogan "US navy, defend the coasts!"
Attaching importance to the role of the air force in war, they separated the air force which had formerly belonged to the ground and naval forces and set up the Department of the Air Force under the Department of Defence in July 1947. After World War II the US Defence Department and Air Force Department reorganized even the civil aircraft corporations into military ones and mass-produced bombers including B-29 and fighters. As a result, things went so far as to discuss the proposal on bringing the number of air force and planes respectively from 18,600 men and 1,000 planes in 1937 to 401, 000 men of 70 regiments and 20,541 planes in March 1948. (Korean Central Yearbook , Pyongyang, 1950, pp. 675-76.)
139
Armaments expansion and militarization manoeuvres went with unprecedented war rackets in the United States.
In 1948 the US State Department opened to the public a war document explaining the "character of national defence measures of the United States". Here the US rulers boomed the possibility of a war with the socialist countries. In August 1949 US Secretary of the Navy Matthews openly claimed for starting a "preventive war". In 1948 the US News and World Report wrote: "Chief of the General Staff of the Army Bradley reiterates the increased possibility of war. The State Department is also working out a policy based on such possibility. The loud noises of brass hats about war have driven the 140 million Americans utterly crazy. The top policy-makers and Congress have to try to appropriate more money for national defence than the Joint Chiefs of Staff has planned and intended to do. Now it has become more difficult to lull war psychosis than to ferment it."* This showed that the war atmosphere in the United States had been aggravated to the extreme by such a reckless row of war.
* US News and World Report, August 14, 1948.
US imperialism, also considering the possible extension of the Korean war to another world war, forced its "allies" to militarize their economy and follow the road of arms race, while hurrying itself with war preparations.
In October 1949 US Congress adopted the "Mutual Defence and Aid Act for 1949". In this act the United States defined that "military aid" to other countries was to be offered only as a "means needed for the security of the United States" and the countries receiving "aid" had an "obligation to agree" to expansion of armaments and establishment of US military bases. This compelled the "aid" recipients, the European capitalist countries in particular, to expand armaments according to the US plan for a new war and offer their territories to the United States as "military bases".
The subsequent years showed an annual decrease in the supply of US commodities to European countries and a relative increase in the supply of its weapons and other various war materials. The "aid" recipients had no alternative but to earmark more military expenses for armaments expansion under the pressure of the United States. Already in 1949 the countries under the influence of the "Marshall Plan" disbursed their military expenses of 2,000 million dollars more than the amount of the "aid" they received from the United States according to the plan. This fact alone shows how dear was the price of the US
140
"aid" which forced expansion of armaments.
Another important thing in the US efforts for new war provocation was the formation of military blocs.
Under the preposterous slogan of "regional defence" against the non-existent "communist threat" US imperialism planned to throw the socialist countries in a military encirclement and create favourable conditions for a new war by forming aggressive military blocs in regional units covering the whole world.
This plan was put into practice first in the American continent. At the Conference of the Foreign Ministers of the American Countries held in Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, in September 1948, the United States forced an "Inter-American Mutual Defence Treaty" on the plausible pretext of strengthening "regional collective defence" through "close military cooperation" between the American countries, and framed up an Inter-American Military Alliance. Under this treaty US imperialism acquired the "right" to mobilize Latin American countries in the execution of its war policy by "imposing a duty" upon them to give "mutual aid" and participate in the "agreed joint action" for the "security" of the Americas.
The United States organized an aggressive military alliance in Europe, too.
In June 1948 the Senate of the United States adopted the resolution on a "new plan" for the US foreign policy mapped out by Vandenburg, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate. It was to form aggressive military alliances with countries outside the American continent. Under this plan the US imperialists started negotiations for the formation of a broad military alliance embracing Canada and West European countries and concluded the "North Atlantic Treaty" and the "North Atlantic Alliance" in Washington in April 1949. And in September 1949 the Washington conference of the "North Atlantic Treaty" Council formed the "North Atlantic Treaty Organization" (NATO) consisting of a "defence committee" and a "military committee".
The formation of the "NATO" by US imperialism was aimed at subordinating as many countries as possible to it and enlisting them in aggressive wars against the socialist countries and the national-liberation movement, thereby accomplishing the plan for world domination. The "NATO" was a product of the American way of invasion for achieving its aggressive aim at the expense of others.
In the wake of the formation of the "NATO" the US imperialists schemed
141
to organize the so-called "Pacific Alliance" as an Asian-typed "NATO", but in vain.
All these war manoeuvres rapidly stepped up by the American rulers in Washington revealed that their plan for world domination entered the stage of full-scale fulfilment and that Korea was just on the threshold of war to be triggered off as a link in the chain of their plan for world supremacy.
War Preparations in Japan
The US preparations for the provocation of an aggressive war in Korea proceeded in real earnest also in Japan under the occupation of the US forces.
Occupying Japan single-handed after World War II, the US imperialists attached great importance to the role which Japan could play in speeding up their aggression on Korea and the Asian continent. Ever since their occupation of Japan they invariably pursued the policy of turning Japan into a "springboard" for their aggression on Korea and Asia and into an "anti-communist base" in Asia. This is well illustrated by the policy of the US imperialists toward Japan, who after the announcement of the "Truman doctrine" gave precedence to the revival of Japanese militarist forces as well as monopoly "zaibatsu" to turn Japan into an "arsenal of the Far East".
The American rulers in Washington had good reason to attach importance to Japan’s role in their aggression of Korea and Asia. Japan not only afforded a military and strategic base because of her favourable geographical location but also possessed developed military and economic potential, plentiful human resources and rich experience in aggression and war. That was why they considered Japan to be a special-grade base for their invasion of Korea and the Asian continent.
From this, great political, economic and military efforts were made to quickly turn Japan into a US military and strategic base, and war preparations further accelerated in Japan proper after the revision of the plan for the provocation of a Korean war.
In his "New Year’s address" of 1950 Mac Arthur, Commander of US Armed Forces in the Far East, openly approved the overseas aggression of the Japanese militarists under the pretext of "self-defence", by saying: "The Constitution of Japan does not negate her right to self-defence". Also pointing out that under the Constitution Japan did not "abandon her right to security by dint
142
of war and armed force" he said that this stipulation of the Constitution (Article 9 providing for abandonment of war and demilitarization-gwote/-) could never be "interpreted as total negation of the right to self-defence against an attack from the adversary, whatever reasoning might be applied to it".*
* Material, History of Postwar Twenty Years , Vol. Ill, Tokyo, p. 56.
MacArthur’s address revealed that the US policy of war needed full-scale promotion of war preparations in Japan at the beginning of 1950. And it was as good as an open declaration that in case war broke out in Korea or in other areas of Asia, Japan could directly be involved in it under the name of "defence of the right to self-defence".
On January 10, 1950, following MacArthur’s speech, US State Secretary Acheson, described, before the US Senate, Japan as "an iron wall of anti-communism in Asia", and stressed the need to "restore her influence over the whole area of the Far East without fail".* On the 12th, two days later, he issued a statement of Asian policy concerning "Asian crisis," in which he openly declared that the United States should extend its "defence line" to the mainland of Japan and keep a firm military base there.
* In the above-mentioned speech Acheson said: "...I have not any intention to give up or weaken the defence of Japan. Even if a certain agreement was concluded by a permanent settlement or other methods, this defence should be maintained, and I can answer for my resolve to maintain it by all means." (Postwar Materials, Japan-US Relations , Tokyo, p. 13.)
After openly making such a violent statement that Japan had to be built up as an "iron wall of anti-communism in Asia", the American rulers pushed war preparations in Japan at a rapid pace.
On February 15, 1950 Collins, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, said at Congress that the US army stationed in Japan and Europe would in a few months get itself ready enough to carry out its mission with credit in case they were attacked by the enemy, and that although the army had submitted a budget of 4,020 million dollars, it would be used as expenses for an up-keep of 10 divisions, of which four would be stationed in Japan.* And he confessed the need to strengthen the US occupation troops in Japan in order to complete preparations for a Korean war within a few months.
143
* Lectures on Japanese History (8), Tokyo, p. 172.
According to a plan for the reinforcement of the US Forces in the Far East, the US air force stationed in Japan was replenished with three wings of B-26 and B-29 bombers, six wings of pursuits and two wings of transport planes, and the reinforced air force units were concentrated in Kyushu on June 23, 1950 on the eve of the Korean war. Besides, the US Seventh Fleet received reinforcements-two aircraft carriers, two cruisers and six destroyers. The capacities of the infantry, tank, artillery and transport units under the Command of the US Armed Forces in the Far East were further increased by an additional outlay of war funds.
From October 1949 US ground forces were sent urgently to the Kyushu area where they held intense military exercises, similar to a war. A good example of this was the 19th Regiment of the US 24th Division which from about June 20, 1950 was thrown into "landing and attacking" exercises on the sea, firing live ammunition and shells. (The Study of Korea , Japanese edition, No. 6, 1966.)
Before provoking the Korean war the US imperialists also built and expanded their military bases in Japan on a large scale.
Already in December 1948 MacArthur, Commander of the US Armed Forces in the Far East, gave an order to the Japanese government to draw up a "five-year plan" to repair and expand the highways for military use and this order was faithfully carried out. Besides, the US imperialists commenced the construction of an air base in Okinawa whose construction was originally planned to be accomplished in six years and completed the main part of it in six months. Reporting on the construction of US air bases in Japan in those days, Japan Times wrote: "Many aerodromes are under construction all over the land of Japan, ranging from Hokkaido to Kyushu and their asphalted runways are available for the landing of the biggest bombers."*! In addition to air bases, projects for the construction of naval bases, army barracks and other installations were undertaken all at once in all important strategic points of Japan such as Okinawa, Kobe, Yokosu-ka, Kure, Aomori, Akita and Sapporo. According to the documents of the Peace Conference of the Asian and Pacific Areas, 612 US military bases and installations had been built or rebuilt in Japan before the Korean war broke out, each in every 600 square kilometres on an average.*2
\.Japan Times, January 18, 1951.
144
*2. Documents of the Peace Conference of the Asian and Pacific Areas , p. 43.
Japan was openly built up as a supply and repair base for the Korean war. It could be seen first of all in the quick promotion of the "policy of turning Japan into an arsenal in the Far East".
At the US House Appropriations Sub-committee in March 1950, Joseph Dodge, President of the American Detroit Bank and supreme adviser in finance to MacArthur, said that "Japan now became a focus in deciding the US policy towards the Far East" in connection with the urgent preparations of war and that "the US Far Eastern policy in the future would probably necessitate the increase of aid to Japan and her conversion into a leaping board and a supply source for the Far Eastern area".* This was an open declaration that Japan would have to play the role of a "supply base" in case the United States would ignite a war in any country of the Far East.
* Materials, History of the Postwar Twenty Years , Vol. II, (Economy), Tokyo.
Japan was being turned into a "supply base" in full force from the autumn of 1949 when the US imperialists were revising their plan for provoking a war in Korea.
Securing a reserve of war materials in Japan, the US imperialists put under the control of the US Forces numerous Japanese arsenals including 800-odd munitions factories which had formerly belonged to Japan’s War and Navy Departments and been designated as factories for reparation, and let them produce military supplies.*
* Originally the "factories designated for reparation" of Japan numbered 1,229 as of January 1948. Afterwards, the US imperialists, turning Japan into a "supply base" for their aggression of Asia, released no small number of them from reparation status or put them into "limited" operation. In May 1949 they directed the Japanese government not to transfer even the remaining few "factories designated for reparation" to other countries for war compensation but make them turn out munitions of war. (Materials, History of the Postwar Twenty Years , Vol. II, p. 222.)
The "Higashinihon Heavy Industry" which was the former "Mitsubishi Heavy Industry", the "Fuju Automobiles" and the "Komatsu Factory" were made to repair and assemble military cars and tanks of the US troops, and
145
the "Musashi Plant of the Nihon Steel Works" to make landing craft instead of farm implements. The "Miike Dye Factory", the biggest of its kind in Japan, was changed into a plant producing raw materials of TNT and poisongas.
* Monthly Report of the Industrial Trade Union, No. 7, 1950, p. 65.
In April 1950 began the conversion of the Landing Ship, Tank of the US Navy into troopships at all the shipyards in Japan. Over 70 ships were rebuilt in a short period.*!
A "Committee on Blood Transfusion" was formed in May 1949 to create a store of blood serum. In February the following year a "Blood Centre" was instituted.*2 (It is important to note that these ships and the "Blood Centre" were in active service from the outset of the Korean war.)
*1 & 2. The Study of Korea, Japanese edition, No. 6, 1966.
Following the policy of turning Japan into a military base, into an "arsenal of the Far East", US imperialism had been able to create every condition for the use of Japan as a base of attack, repair and supply for the Korean war by the first half of 1950.*
* Even according to the figures published by the US side, the number of US planes that had sallied forth to the Korean front from US army bases in Japan totalled 46,600 during the one hundred days from June 26, 1950, the day after the outbreak of the Korean war, to October 3. And during the one year from June 1950 to June 17, 1951 the US imperialists were supplied with war materials worth 315,160,000 dollars by Japan, the largest proportion of which was assumed by military cars numbering 10,285. (Analysis of Japan under Occupation, Second Series, Beijing, p. 16.)
These few figures go to show how the United States utilized Japan as a base of attack and supply in the initial period of the Korean war. The fact that the United States was able to extensively use Japan as a base of attack and supply for the US forces on the Korean front from the first day of the Korean war helps us to fully understand the object of their policy of turning Japan into a military base, into an "arsenal of the Far East", which they had pushed forward in a planned way in the prewar days.
As part of war preparations in Japan the US imperialists strengthened the
146
repression of the democratic forces of Japan and the persecution of Korean citizens in Japan.
Fascistization of society is a worn-out measure usually taken by the reactionary ruling circles before going into a war of aggression.
Just before the provocation of the Korean war the US imperialists intensified suppression of the Japanese democratic forces with a view to making Japan their dependable strategic base,
On May 30, 1950 the Command of US Occupation Forces in Japan ordered the forcible breakup of a meeting for the general mobilization of the people sponsored by the Tokyo preparatory committee of the National Democratic Front of Japan. On June 2, the same year it took such a fascist repressive step as to ban all outdoor meetings and demonstrations, trampling underfoot even elementary democratic rights. As the Japanese people put it, that was "virtually a proclamation of martial law not necessary at all in view of the then internal situation of Japan".*
* In this context Japanese people said that it was directly related to the provocation of the Korean war, and continued: "What the occupation troops were after under such martial law was not observed clearly in Japan at that time. But a series of measures were being taken for a great historical event, when the Japanese people were forced to become blind, deaf and dumb temporarily in such a fearful atmosphere. With the outbreak of the Korean war on June 25 the meaning of that virtual proclamation of martial law became clear to all." (Modern History of Japan, Vol. Ill, Tokyo, p. 300.)
Immediately after the "virtual proclamation of the martial law" the spearhead of repression of the Command of the US Armed Forces in the Far East was directed to the Japan Communist Party.
On June 6, 1950 Mac Arthur sent a "letter" to Yoshida, Premier of the Japanese government, directing him to suppress the Japan Communist Party. In the "letter" MacArthur, labelling the Japanese democratic forces including the Communist Party as "ominous forces", gave orders to purge 24 members of the Central Committee of the Japan Communist Party from public office under the unreasonable pretext that they had "schemed to overthrow the constitutional government of Japan by force" and "directly rejected the aim and intention of the occupation" by the United States, thus incurring a "danger of leading the Japanese nation to ruin". And the next day he issued an order to expel the leading editorial staff of Akahata, organ of the Central Committee of this Party.
147
The reactionary Yoshida government immediately carried out Mac Arthur’s orders and, on June 16, took measures to prohibit assemblies and demonstrations of the people throughout Japan on the instructions of Willough-by, Director of the Information Department of the Command of the US Armed Forces in the Far East.
The Japanese people, subjected to fascist suppression by the US and Japanese ruling circles, were completely denied the right to political activity. They had only the obligation to be unconditionally submissive to the US policy of war. Such US acts of accelerating the fascistization of Japanese society, even trampling underfoot the rudimentary political rights of the people of another country, showed that its war hysteria had reached a climax on the eve of the Korean war.
The worst thing the United States did in its efforts to fascistize Japanese society and speed up war preparations was the persecution of Korean citizens in Japan.
President Kim Il Sung said:
"As for the question of the 600,000 Koreans in Japan, it is, in essence, a matter which resulted from the former colonial rule of the Japanese imperialists in our country." (Kim Il Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 27, p. 48.)
As for the Koreans in Japan they are those who were forcibly taken to Japan for "conscription" or "draft", or drifted to Japan in search of a livelihood under the harsh colonial rule of Japanese imperialism, and their descendants. Therefore, after the defeat of Japanese imperialism the Koreans in Japan justly deserved to enjoy democratic national rights and freedom as foreigners.
Nevertheless, the US and Japanese ruling circles did not recognize the legal rights of the Koreans in Japan and treated them as citizens of the "enemy country". Worse still, they harshly suppressed them after World War II simply because they were waging a struggle for democratic national rights and freedom and an economic struggle for the right to live.*
* Koreans in Japan had been subjected to open suppression already from 1948. In April 1948 the Japanese government took a hostile measure to forcibly close all the Korean schools in Hyogo Prefecture, Osaka and Tokyo and arrest their principals on the pretext that the Federation of Korean Residents in Japan had not followed out its unreasonable "directions" as to conducting education in the Japanese language and with Japanese textbooks in Korean schools. When the Koreans demonstrated in protest against such an illegal suppressive measure, the Japanese government even mobilized police, who committed
148
outrages upon the demonstrators and arrested many of them, even perpetrating the atrocity
of shooting a 15-year old Korean boy to death.
The Koreans in Japan were suppressed not only by the Japanese reactionary ruling circles
but also by the US occupation troops in Japan from the first.
At the beginning of 1948 the "Provost Marshal Headquarters" of the US occupation forces
proclaimed emergency martial law in Kobe district for the first time in the postwar days
and made a wholesale roundup of Koreans in Japan. That time 1,840 Korean residents in
Kobe. Kyoto and Osaka were arrested and detained by US MPs. (Materials, History of the
Postwar Twenty Years, Vol. VI, Tokyo, p. 254.)
Afterwards, the US 8th Army Commander called a press conference and hurled slander at the just struggle of the Koreans in Japan for democratic national rights and freedom, describing it as a "barbarous rebellion of Koreans" and tried to "justify" their repressive measure, telling a lie that the rebellion was planned by the "communists".* This fact revealed that the US troops regarded the suppression of Koreans in Japan as an important link in the chain of "anti-communist" policy to hold down the democratic forces in Japan.
*David W. Conde, An Unfold History of Modern Korea. Vol. I, Tokyo, p. 295.
The persecution and oppression of Koreans in Japan by MacArthur and the Japanese government became all the more pronounced as the US imperialists prepared a Korean war with added vigor. Indicative of it was the fact that upon cooking up the notorious "Organization Control Ordinance" intended to check the activities of the democratic parties and social organizations, the Japanese government first applied it to the suppression of the Koreans in Japan.
On September 8, 1949 the Japanese government, by the directive of MacArthur, ordered the Federation of Korean Residents in Japan and the Democratic Youth League of Korea in Japan to dissolve, on false charges of having "committed violence" and "opposed" the US troops’ policy toward Japan, and took such fascist and burglarious measures as to confiscate their whole property worth several hundred million won and purge their cadres from public office. And in order to prevent the Koreans in Japan from forming another organization, it declared: "If the Koreans form such organizations again, they shall be punished severely."
The fact that the Japanese government had applied the "Organization
149
Control Ordinance", an evil fascist law, to the Koreans in Japan before anyone else after its enactment meant that the US and Japanese ruling circles had directed the spearhead of repression to the Koreans in fascistiz-ing Japanese society. And the fact that the Koreans had been made major victims in Japan’s fascistization, part of war preparations, showed that the US imperialists were preparing war in Japan just to oppose the Korean people.
The above facts show how scrupulously, extensively and viciously the US imperialists prepared the Korean war.
All that the American rulers had to do now after stepping up war preparations in the United States and Japan was to whip together the renascent Japanese militarists and the south Korean rulers for the former’s involvement in the Korean war and give Syngman Rhee an instruction to start war.
The Abortive Plot for the Formation of the "Pacific Alliance" and
MacArthur’s "Eleven-Point War Instruction"
The US imperialists who had been speeding up preparations in south Korea and Japan for an aggressive war now made hasty efforts to wind them up by aligning the south Korean puppets and the Japanese militarists.
From this came the plot to form an aggressive "Pacific Alliance".
President Kim Il Sung said:
"The US imperialists are making preparations for the formation of the so-called ‘Pacific Alliance’ in the Far East. This is to rearm the Japanese imperialists and utilize them as a ‘shock brigade’ of an aggressive war against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, and utilize them to put down the national-liberation movements of the peoples of many oppressed countries in the Pacific areas." (Let Us Promote the World Revolution, Holding High the Banner of Marxism-Leninism and Proletarian Internationalism, the Banner of Anti-Imperialist, Anti-US Struggle, Eng. ed., p. 17.)
Their intrigue to bring forth a “Pacific Alliance", together with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, formed a link in the chain of the US imperialists’ foreign policy for completing the worldwide system of aggressive military blocs against socialism and the national-liberation movement; the objective of
150
this alliance was to revive Japanese militarism, rally the satellite countries in the Asian and Pacific areas and thus to enlist them easily in carrying out their policy of aggression and war.
Particularly, in connection with the preparations of war of aggression in Korea, the US imperialists attached special significance to harnessing Japanese militarists to this alliance.
The reason was that to strengthen the tie-up between the Japanese militarists and the south Korean puppets within a "Pacific Alliance" by dragging the former into it would make it easier to "cooperate" with the Japanese militarists in the forthcoming war of aggression in Korea.
Things, however, did not turn out as the US imperialists had wanted. Japan still remained a "vanquished country". Before putting the mantle of an "independent state" over her it would be hardly possible to openly enlist Japanese militarism in the intrigue for the formation of any "anti-communist" bloc in the Pacific area, and a "Pacific Alliance" minus Japan was meaningless.
Therefore, some American warlords including MacArthur and State Department officials insisted on an early conclusion of a peace treaty with Japan, and until then the United States had resorted to the cunning tactics of not coming to the fore in the efforts to form a "Pacific Alliance".
From this the US imperialists were out to bind Japan up in fetters of subordinate relationship by a new treaty of subjugation while trying to put an end to the occupation system over Japan and recover the position of an "independent state" for her at an early date. In the meantime, they were engaged in manoeuvres for the formation of an "anti-communist" bloc in the Pacific area with their puppets Chiang Kai-shek and Syngman Rhee as the advocates.
In accordance with such US imperialist tactics, on May 11, 1949 Chiang Kai-shek instructed Ku Wei-jun, ambassador of the Kuomintang "government" in Washington, to approach US Secretary of State Acheson with the proposal for the conclusion of a "Pacific Pact". Australian Prime Minister Tsifri and Syngman Rhee issued statements respectively on May 12 and 13 demanding the conclusion of a "Pacific Pact".
In this way the US imperialists attempted to give the world the impression that the formation of a "Pacific Alliance" was willingly proposed by Asian countries themselves in fear of the "communist threat" to this area.
The back-stage manoeuvres of US imperialism continued.
In July 1949 a conference with reference to the formation of an "Asian Anti-Communist Alliance" was held between Philippine President Quirino and
151
Chiang Kai-shek in Baguio, the Philippines. On August 8 the plan for an anti-communist "Pacific Pact" envisaging the partnership of the Philippines was discussed again by Chiang Kai-shek and Syngman Rhee at the Jinhae naval base, south Korea. An agreement was reached there on convening a conference in the Philippines for the formation of a "Pacific Alliance".*!
The "Pacific Alliance" advocated by Chiang Kai-shek and Syngman Rhee was an "anti-communist" military bloc which would be formed with the US as the main axis and with its Asian satellites and puppets under its protected wing.
It also emanated from the US imperialists1 Asian strategy of extending their "containment policy" against the so-called "communist sphere of influence" to the Pacific area by forming without delay in Asia, too, such a comprehensive "anti-communist" military bloc as the NATO in Europe.
Nevertheless, the wily US ruling circles disinclined to give an official nod to a "Pacific Alliance" in consideration of the political moves in Asia, and, moreover, both Chiang Kai-shek and Syngman Rhee were not equal to the task of taking such a "leading role" as wished by the United States. The US imperialists still considered that a "Pacific Alliance" without Japan would be meaningless and with a "living corpse" like Chiang Kai-shek and an "old horse" like Syngman Rhee alone its existence would count for nothing.
Philippine President Quirino paid a visit to Washington in August 1948 to get active support from the United States in connection with the formation of a "Pacific Alliance". However, Truman only assured him on August 11 that the United States was "watching with sympathy" the efforts of the non-communist countries in the Far East to form collective security.*2
Earlier, on July 11, US State Secretary Acheson declined the repeated proposal offered by Syngman Rhee that "the United States shall take an active part in supporting a Pacific Pact or a similar union of Asiatic countries for their common security", by saying: "...for the time being, the United States cannot officially take part in it".*3 This was a revelation of the cunning tactics of the US government.
*1 & 2. l.F. Stone, The Hidden History of the Korean War, Vol. I, Tokyo, pp. 38-40. *3. "Report from M. Chang, South Korean Ambassador in the United States, to Syngman Rhee, dated July 13, 1949" (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 48).
However, this by no means meant that the US government had remained
152
passive or indifferent to the formation of a "Pacific Alliance".
In the letter sent to Syngman Rhee dated July 13. 1949 M. Chang, south Korean Ambassador in the United States, wrote: "Though the United States hesitates in officially taking part in the matter of the ‘Pacific Alliance’, we can gather from yesterday’s statement of Mr. McDermott, official reporter of the State Department, that for the first time the United States is deeply interested in a union of Asiatic countries against the communist influence; and we can expect that in due time she will take an active part in it." As seen here, it was only because the time was not proper that the US government hesitated in directly participating in it.
The American rulers considered 1949 and 1950 not "proper" for them to come to the fore in forming a "Pacific Alliance". Until that time there was yet no prospect for the conclusion of a peace treaty with Japan, and the official formation of an organization for "collective security" in Asia would attract world attention to the detriment of the secret preparation of the Korean war.
The US imperialists felt no need to be made the target of criticism of the world public opinion for the "Pacific Alliance" because at that time they were trying to conceal their aggressive nature behind the smokescreens of "nonintervention in Taiwan" and the "defence line" statement. Particularly, it was tantamount to self-revelation of their criminal nature before the world to form a collective defence pact with Syngman Rhee who would have to play a pioneer role in unleashing a Korean war and Chiang Kai-shek who would get involved in it in one way or another.
Hence, the conference of Asian countries held in Baguio, the Philippines, from May 26 to 30, 1950 did not form a regional military bloc nor issued any "anti-communist" statement. (At that time the United States made the south Korean puppets stop the row about a "northward expedition" and tried to create the "silence of Seoul" and "quiet of May and June". Neither was that conference attended by the Syngman Rhee and Chiang Kai-shek cliques, to say nothing of the United States. It is noteworthy that Syngman Rhee and Chiang Kai-shek boycotted that conference. It would be natural to relate it with the "silence of Seoul".
The conference discussed only general issues due to the US imperialists considering its convocation to be "premature". Thus, the question of forming a "Pacific Alliance" as a military bloc had to be put on the shelf for the time being.
Waiting for a "proper time" was the US policy toward a "Pacific Alliance".
153
Instead, the US imperialists thought it would be rather favourable to form a bilateral or multilateral military alliance with other Pacific nations that wanted to come under the "nuclear umbrella". For it would meet both the demand of these nations and their own interests and keep their war preparations in the dark.
Proceeding from this, the US rulers sped up preparations for the conclusion of a separate peace treaty with Japan while planning the formation of such blocs as ANZUS and SEATO. For the present they had to follow the line of aligning the Japanese militarists and the south Korean puppets for the preparations of the Korean war.
A "Pacific Alliance" would have been able to be formed only by making Japan an "independent state" under a "peace treaty" with her and by "conciliating" south Korea which had professed to be "anti-Japanese" and aligning it with Japan. An Asian military bloc formed on that basis alone could serve as a useful instrument for carrying out the US plan for world domination.
Under such strategic calculation of the US a "Pacific Alliance" proved an abortion.
However, the US imperialists pushed their plan for the alignment of the south Korean puppets and the Japanese militarists, while preparing for the conclusion of a separate peace treaty with Japan.
These two were the aims pursued in the abortive plot for a "Pacific Alliance", the prerequisite to the formation of a "collective defence organization" for Asia, and the key to completing the preparations of the Korean war for the present.
Now that Japan had been designated as an offensive and rear base under a new war plan, it was impossible to wage a war in Korea without bringing together the south Korean puppets and the Japanese militarists. So, the US imperialists set about aligning them, skilfully playing on the aggressive ambition of the Japanese militarists who were dreaming about restoring their lost position in Korea and the rest of the Asian continent and on the uncertainty and egoistic aspect of the "anti-Japanese" policy of the Syngman Rhee clique.
MacArthur, Commander of the US Armed Forces in the Far East, called Syngman Rhee and his ilk to Japan in the middle of February 1950.
At this call, Syngman Rhee went to Japan on February 16, 1950, where he had secret talks with MacArthur on February 17, and then with Japanese militarists. At the secret talks on the 17th MacAthur gave the following instructions to Syngman Rhee:
154
1. the Syngman Rhee troops all shall be put under the command of MacArthur;
2. the Syngman Rhee troops shall undertake concerted operations with the Japanese troops;
3. in case of conducting concerted operations with the Japanese troops Ri Un, *l a member of royalty of the former Ri dynasty, and commander of the Japanese air force in the days of Japanese rule, shall be appointed as comman-der-in-chief under the Operational Commanding Department of MacArthur Command;
4. Syngman Rhee shall send one million sok of rice to the MacArthur Command until June 30 as rations for the Japanese troops;
5. the Syngman Rhee troops shall provoke a civil war;
6. Syngman Rhee shall set up munitions factories in Japan under the supervision of the Japanese;
7. high-ranking officers of the Syngman Rhee troops shall get training from Japanese officers in Japan;
8. the Syngman Rhee troops shall employ many Japanese officers;
9. the Syngman Rhee troops shall stop their reinforcement and employ a great number of Japanese troops, considering that the untrained troops are more an obstacle in the war than a help;
10. MacArthur will guarantee the position of Syngman Rhee during and after the war;
11. the MacArthur Command will secure Japanese troops to take part in a Korean war, and their weapon and ammunitions for six months.*2
* 1. Ri Un was a descendant of the Ri dynasty and a Japanized element. After the country was ruined he was taken to Japan as a hostage and married the daughter of Hashimoto, a member of the Japanese royal family. He had a fortune of over five million won. *2. Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War bv the US Imperialists, p. 102. Exposure of the Truth about the US Imperialist Policy of Aggression against Korea and the Real Provoker of the Civil War, pp. 71 -72.
The "eleven-point war instruction" of MacArthur was intended to let the south Korean puppet army and the Japanese aggression troops conduct joint operations under the unified command of the US and, for this, to unite them and complete war preparations.
That was also an aggressive "instruction" to the quick which was based on
155
the premeditated scheme between MacArthur and the Yoshida government of Japan and opened the door of renewed aggression for the Japanese militarists who were seeking for a chance to invade Korea again.
That was also a criminal "instruction" which, on a promise to keep Syng-man Rhee on the "presidential" chair, made him pledge his allegiance to the American masters in carrying out their aggressive Far Eastern policy by dragging, upon their instruction, the Japanese aggression troops into Korea to form an "anti-communist crusade".
President Kim Il Sung said:
"In preparing for the so-called ‘push north’, the Syngman Rhee clique, on the instructions of the US imperialists, did not even hesitate to begin colluding with the Japanese militarists, the sworn enemy of the Korean people." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 6, p. 9.)
The "eleven-point war instruction" laid bare the Syngman Rhee clique in all their ugliness as a horde of traitors to the nation who did not even hesitate to collude with the Japanese militarists, the sworn enemy of the Korean people, in order to satisfy their wicked political desire and realize "unification by marching north".
Taking over the whole of Mac Arthur’s "eleven-point war instruction", Syngman Rhee sent Chief of the General Staff Chae Pyong Dok and other high-ranking officials to Tokyo one after another, and shipped one million sok of rice to Japan as a sign of his faithfulness to his master.
The Japanese militarists, too, under the active patronage of the MacArthur Command scrupulously prepared to take a direct part in a war of aggression against Korea.
Thus, the military compact had been secretly promoted among the United States, Japan and south Korea, and preparations for embroiling the Japanese militarists in an aggressive war against Korea and mobilizing and utilizing all the military and economic potentials of Japan had been nearly completed before the outbreak of the Korean war.
156
3. Provocation of the Korean War by US Imperialism
Silence before the Storm
"Let’s start war in Korea"-this was an unalterable policy of the US government. In accordance with this predetermined policy the war plan was given a definite shape in top secrecy and, entering 1950, the war preparations proceeded at the finishing stage.
As John Osborn, Life correspondent to south Korea, wrote that "never before in our history had we been so nearly prepared at the start of any war as we were at the start of this war",*l the United States had never displayed so great trickery and prepared arms so fully as in the Korean war in its history of overseas aggression marked by swindling and fraud, threats and blackmail.
Everything went according to their plan. But they deemed it necessary to make assurance doubly sure, and thought it was important above all to invent some plausible pretexts before kindling war.
With this in view, they formed some designs to veil their aggressive nature and lay the blame for war at the Republic’s door. The first design was to "convince" the world of the fact that Korea’s "security" had nothing to do with US security and that the US was not interested in Korea.
Hence the US rulers started booming that Korea was of no strategic value in the Far Eastern policy of the United States. A typical instance of it was provided by US State Secretary Acheson who declared on January 12, 1950 at the Federal Club that the US defence line in the Far East ran from the Aleutians to the Loochoos through Japan proper and then from the Loochoos to the Philippines, thus deliberately setting south Korea aside. And he evidently hinted at south Korea and Taiwan when he said that as for the security of the countries outside this defence line no one could guarantee them against military attack. In this way he tried to give an impression that it was not the US policy to "defend" south Korea. *2 Then Connally, Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made a statement to the effect that Korea was not on the
157
"foremost defence line" of the United States. Meanwhile, Truman, in his policy statement on January 5, said that the US government was not inclined to follow the line of meddling in the civil war of China. He even declared for the so-called "policy of nonintervention in Taiwan", that is, a policy of not giving any military aid or advice to the Chiang Kai-shek troops of Taiwan.*3 The American rulers also stressed, time and again, that the United States would refrain from officially participating in any regional military alliance in Asia including the Pacific Treaty Organization.
At that time no small number of the world public were dazed by a string of such statements let out by the US rulers from the outset of 1950. Some even nearly believed the United States would really take its hands off south Korea and Taiwan. But many others still greatly doubted those statements issued at the time when they were loud-mouthed about the "crisis of Asia" and the "threat of southward invasion". They tried to take a look into the shady side of that "defence line" statement.
A gimlet in a bag shows itself. The hypocritic nature of those statements soon came into the open. They were an anaesthetic to benumb the vigilance of the world public, the Korean and Chinese peoples in particular, over the US war policy and a smokescreen to cover up their war provocation plan. One year before, MacArthur announced that "today the Pacific Ocean... is a lake of the Anglo-Saxons"*4 and even made a secret promise, saying: "I will defend south Korea as I would defend the shores of my own native land."*5 Acheson himself could not conceal his real intention in the latter part of the above-said speech. Stressing that the claim for giving up aid to south Korea and the idea of preventing this country from being firmly built up halfway were grounded on thorough defeatism with regard to our interests in Asia, he insisted that if there was an attack, a people attacked should first resist it by themselves and then should rely on the promise of the whole civilized world under the UN Charter.*6 Supposing his remarks were intended for south Korea, they can be construed as meaning that he wanted to let the south Korean puppet spark a civil war on the false plea of "north Korea’s attack" and make this alleged victim offer "resistance" to it, and then to realize the all-out US involvement in the Korean war in the name of the "whole civilized world under the UN Charter".
It can therefore be said that Acheson’s "defence line" statement reflected a revised US plan for new war provocation, the plan to intervene in the Korean war under the UN appellation and occupy the whole of Korea.
158
* I. Life, July 15, 1950.
*2. Dean Acheson, Asian Crisis, US Policy’s Trial. (State Dept. Bulletin No. 22, January
23, 1950, p. 116.)
*3. Truman, US Policy for Taiwan. (State Dept. Bulletin No. 22, January 16, 1950, p. 79.)
*4. New York Times, March 2, 1949.
*5. John Gunther, The Riddle of MacArthur, Tokyo, p. 263.
*6. See *2.
Leaving Korea and Taiwan outside the US "defence line," the US rulers asserted that they
had nothing to do with the US "security". That this was a mere smokescreen for covering
up their act of aggression to be committed before long was fully revealed by Acheson
when he. quite oblivious of what he had uttered in January, directly linked up "south
Korea’s security" with US "security". He said right after the outbreak of the Korean war
on June 25, 1950, to this effect: The attack on Korea... is a crucial test as to whether our
collective security system survives or collapses. Meanwhile, the Chiefs of the General
Staffs of the three services came round to the view thatL"cornmunization" of Korea would
spell a threat to Japan (Glenn D. Paige, The United States and the Korean War, Tokyo, p.
183). In his July 27, 1950, statement Truman ordered the occupation of Taiwan, going
back from this January 5 statement on "nonintervention in Taiwan". He thus told a lie first
and then the truth.
The "defence line" statement was therefore no more than a piece of silly trickery.
The second design of the US imperialists to keep its cloven hoof from sight and lay the blame for war on the Republic was to silence the frantic war clamour of the Syngman Rhee clique and get them to spread a rumour that the "north is going to invade the south".
As the special correspondent of the New York Times to Seoul reported, most of the warlike statements had always been made by the south Korean leaders.*! On May 5 Syngman Rhee suggested the impending start of the "march north" by saying: "May and June will mark a very important period in the life of our people."*2 The next day, on May 6, he, again beating the drum of "hot war", made a challenging radio address calling upon the north Koreans to rise up and drive away any "outside force" which was actually nonexistent. Anticipating the conquest of north Korea, he went so far as to appoint even the "governors" for the five provinces of the northern half and set up their "temporary office" in Seoul called "administration office of five provinces in the north". *3 The appointment of the "provincial governors" for five provinces
159
within the sovereignty of the Republic and the establishment of their "temporary office" showed that the preparation for the "expedition to the north" had been made to the full. On May 10, in the wake of Syngman Rhee’s provocative radio speech, puppet National Defence Minister Sin Song Mo made an "anti-communist" statement that the north Korean army was moving in force toward the 38th parallel and that there was an impending "danger of aggression". *4
But this statement of the puppet National Defence Minister marked the last of the hue and cry for "restoration of the lost territory" and "march north for unification". The war hullabaloo was reduced to dead silence. No provocative statement came from Seoul, either from a press interview or from a "National Assembly" session. No reaction from Tokyo either. Western reporters whose ears had been accustomed to the provocative statements from south Korea, cast grave doubts on this sudden silence and ironically described south Korea in May and June as a "quiet land".
What then did that silence mean? It was the silence before a storm. The ensuing developments showed that this ominous silence following the "defence line" statement was no more than a ruse to dull the vigilance of the Korean people and "persuade" the world into believing the possible "surprise attack of the north".
* 1. New York Times, June 26, 1950.
*2. Report on a press interview of AP correspondent King in Seoul, May 5, 1950. (Glenn
D. Paige, The United States and the Korean War, Tokyo, p. 89.)
*3. David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 77; Dispatch
of US reporter Andrew Rohs from Seoul.
*4. AP, Seoul, May 10, 1950; New York Times, May 11, 1950.
the US military administration entered a graver stage from 1949. Production was totally destroyed and the currency inflation was uncontrollable. Prices rose sky-high. Compared with 1936, they rose on an average 725 times in 1948, 831 times in April 1949 and 909 times in July of that year.
Economic ruin directly affected the people’s life, roused the broader masses to an anti-US, national salvation struggle, and thus aggravated the political crisis of the Syngman Rhee "government".
The mounting spirit of the people for an independent peaceful reunification of the country gave birth to the anti-Syngman Rhee forces within the south Korean "National Assembly", including the "group for north-south negotiation". An anti-"government" movement started in connection with a vote of "non-confidence in the government", throwing Syngman Rhee’s despotic regime into "confusion".
Such political and economic crisis of south Korea caused great apprehension and unrest among the American rulers who were hurrying with war preparations in the finishing stage. Concerning this, Truman wrote in his Memoirs: "I was deeply concerned over the Rhee government’s lack of concern about the serious inflation that swept the country. Yet we had no other choice but to support Rhee."* l
To clear away the "deep concern" of the US rulers, State Secretary Ache-son sent a memorandum on April 7 to Syngman Rhee, warning him of the need to tide over the political and economic crisis. He wrote to the effect that so long as south Korea failed to check economic inflation and conduct a general election in May, the United States would reexamine its military and economic aid to south Korea and probably feel the need to modify it. *2
Pressing Situation That Brooks No Further Duration
The silence before a storm cannot last long. A ruse to blind the world’s eye and stop the world’s ear has its limit of effect. More, a pressing situation had to be created there where the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee-led rulers had to hurry over their war provocation. It was occasioned by two causes: one was the political and economic crisis of the Syngman Rhee "government" on the verge of total collapse, and the other was the "imminency" of liberation of Taiwan by the Chinese people.
The south Korean economy which had rushed along the road of ruin under
160
*1. Truman, Memoirs, Vol. II, New York, p. 329.
*2. Leon Gordenker, The United Nations and the Peaceful Unification of Korea, p. 173.
Mindful of the master’s warning, Syngman Rhee urged the "national assemblymen" to work out a well-balanced budget, dismissed 60,000 government employees and pursued a "retrenchment policy". This policy, however, proved of no avail; it rather worsened the catastrophic economic situation. Particularly, from the year when one million sok of rice was shipped to Japan by Mac Arthur’s "order", prices were boosted to the sky in south Korea. In Seoul the rice supply petered out and two-thirds of its citizens went hungry.
To tide over the political crisis the "election" which would be allegedly
161
postponed till June or November was conducted on May 30. But its results showed a miserable defeat of Syngman Rhee. Prior to the "election" he had suppressed even the middling forces, to say nothing of the oppositionists, branding them as "Communists". He had committed such a fascist atrocity as jailing 30 opposition candidates. This produced a boomerang effect on the "election". Out of the 210 seats he barely managed to get 47, even raking up all his supporters. Only 12 sided with him in the "National Council for the Promotion of Independence".
The convocation of the new National Assembly clearly showed that Syngman Rhee was meeting his doom. Holding the overwhelming number of seats, the oppositionists strongly demanded the amendment of the Constitution, the curtailment of Presidential authority and the institution of a responsible Cabinet, thus landing tyrant Syngman Rhee on the precipice of political ruin. He had to take emergency measures immediately.
What could he do in such a situation? The only outlet for him was to ignite a war as soon as possible. As US writer Hershel Meyer wrote, he "hung his last hope of survival on war". Driven to the wall, Syngman Rhee came to the conclusion that war alone could get him out of the precipice and clear away all the political and economic crises.
Thus he hurriedly sent M. Chang to Washington who reported the "ruinous state of the government" to the US master on June 12 and "asked for urgent US aid" to overcome that crisis.*!
As to the "urgent US aid" begged for by Syngman Rhee at the time, the New York Herald Tribune exposed that south Korean ambassador M. Chang had given a warning report to a State Department dignitary on his country being on the brink of collapse and begged for some guarantee for US armed intervention in case of war.*2 In other words, the "urgent aid" asked for by Syngman Rhee from his US master was the demand for an early execution of the war plan.
Having received the urgent message from Syngman Rhee, Truman who had no other way but to back Syngman Rhee, as he had put it himself, now had to check the fall of the Syngman Rhee "government" and, to this end, he had to quickly enkindle a planned war. M. Chang’s report on the ruinous state of the Syngman Rhee "government" thus marked an important occasion for the US government to go into war provocation earlier.
. New York Herald Tribune, June 14, 1950.
162
*2. New York Herald Tribune, June 26, 1950.
There were also some other factors that made the Truman Administration jump into the Korean war. One factor was the mounting sentiments for peaceful reunification in Korea.
The Enlarged Meeting of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland convened on June 7, 1950 on the insistence of President Kim II Sung seriously discussed the prevailing situation and adopted an "appeal for promoting measures for the peaceful reunification of the fatherland". The appeal proposed to hold a general election throughout north and south Korea from August 5 to 8, 1950 and establish a united independent democratic central government by forming a united supreme legislative body. To discuss the question of the establishment of a central guidance committee for this general election, the appeal also proposed to convene a consultative meeting of the representatives of north and south Korean political parties and social organizations in Haeju or Kaesong between June 15 and 17.
On June 11 three persons left Ryohyon station for Seoul to convey this appeal reflecting the ardent aspiration of the Korean people for national reunification, to all political parties, social organizations, scientific, cultural, educational, press, publishing and religious organs and individuals in south Korea and to the "UN Commission on Korea". But these envoys of peace failed to convey the appeal as they were illegally arrested by the Syngman Rhee clique.
In an effort to evade a civil war and realize the peaceful reunification even under such a situation, President Kim II Sung called a meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK on June 19 and suggested it propose to the "National Assembly" of south Korea that national reunification be achieved by unifying the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK and the "National Assembly" of south Korea into a single legislative body for all Korea.
Nonetheless, the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee who had long planned for "reunification by force" made Chae Pyong Dok and the Director of the Public Information Bureau threaten the south Korean people by issuing a treacherous statement that "north-south negotiations and peaceful reunification were impermissible" and that "anyone attending a meeting of north-south representatives in response to the proposal of the DFRF...would be branded as a traitor". From June 9 they placed the whole of south Korea up to the 38th parallel under a "special inspection watch" to hamper the convocation of a joint
163
meeting of north-south representatives.*! The door of peaceful reunification was thus closed tight due to the war policy followed by a pack of traitors to the nation. *2
*\.AP. Seoul, June 10. 1950. (From Rodong Sinmun on June 13, 1950.) *2. Following the war policy of the US government, the Syngman Rhee "government" was awake only to the "northward march for unification". It had not any other plan for reunification. It cracked down on the slightest move for peaceful reunification, describing it as an "expression of infidelity". In this connection, even the "UN Commission on Korea" made it clear that the Syngman Rhee "government" had not only failed to participate in any official discussion with the north for reunification but even opposed the unofficial efforts for it. It could not refrain from reporting that the Rhee "government" had made clear its position of regarding any proposal for north-south discussion, whether unofficial or tentative, as a manifestation of infidelity-. ("UNCK Reports," December 1949-September 1950.)
No obstructive manoeuvres, however, could stem the powerful trend towards peaceful reunification and save the hard-pressed Syngman Rhee "government" from collapse. The prevailing situation forced the Washington masters to take urgent measures. The only way to get Syngman Rhee out of the predicament was to quickly carry out their original plan and burn up all the "ominous symptoms" in the flames of war. In his An Untold History of Modern Korea, David W. Conde, who had once served as Chief of the Film Section, the Information and Education Department, the MacArthur Command, drew the following conclusion: ...It would be most reasonable to figure that war was the last resort of crazy Syngman Rhee. As the last game the Syngman Rhee "government" drove the country into a civil war, unable to keep itself steady in face of economic destruction, domestic unrest, harassment by the hostile National Assembly since his defeat in May, and then the people’s leanings towards the peace statement of the north.*i This view of Conde’s may be said to have rather concentrically explained why the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique had rushed at war.
Another important factor that made the US hurriedly ignite the Korean war was the supposed information that the Chinese people were going to liberate Taiwan in the summer.
According to the confession made by Mun Hak Bong, the former political advisor to Syngman Rhee, the US government, having received information that
164
the Chinese people would launch an operation for the liberation of Taiwan in July at the latest, decided to get on with it and advanced the date of the provocation of the Korean war to June. (That information was of doubtful accuracy. It might have been based on assumption or fabricated.) Mun Hak Bong’s testimony that they had turned to the supposed information about the move for the liberation of Taiwan was substantiated by the then US press reports. The New York Times reported that around the mid-June of 1950 the Chinese People’s Liberation Army had wound up all preparations for an "invasion of Taiwan" with its Third Field Army as a mainstay. In his The United States and the Korean War Glenn D. Paige quoted the information obtained by the US Information Bureau by the late spring of 1950 as saying that the Chinese Communist Party had been contemplating the invasion of Taiwan which would be started some day in summer.*2 In mid-June, with the outbreak of the Korean war near at hand, American newspapers let out the secret of their government all at once by reporting that the Department of Defence was going to strongly demand in the third week of June 1950 the President to repeal his resolution on Taiwan (His nonintervention policy for Taiwan made public on January 5-Qitoter)*3
What did this report of the US newspapers suggest? It only signified firstly that both the "defence line" statement and the statement on the "nonintervention policy for Taiwan" issued by the US rulers in January had been a sheer lie and proceeded virtually from a ruse to invent a pretext for occupying Korea and Taiwan which were allegedly outside the "defence line", and secondly that the US rulers had interlinked the Korean and Taiwan questions from the start and put rather greater weight on them than Japan, Loochoos and the Philippines within the "defence line". In those days no one had ever issued a statement about "liberating" Japan, Loochoos and the Philippines; there had not been and could not be the slightest sign of it. In other words, these regions within the "defence line" had been too much "secure" for the United States to issue a threatening statement about their "protection from invasion". Now it is clear that the main object of the "defence line" statement was to ensure the "security" of Taiwan and south Korea, not that of the regions within the "defence line" and, on that pretext, to fabricate "invasion" from the Chinese mainland and north Korea and then completely occupy Taiwan and the whole of Korea by force of arms. Indicative of this is Truman’s notorious June 27 statement in which he officially proclaimed the armed intervention of the US naval and air forces in the Korean war and ordered the Seventh Fleet to Taiwan to occupy it.
165
All this provides ample grounds for saying that when the US rulers obtained the information about the "plan for Taiwan’s liberation" they did not confirm its accuracy but schemed to provoke the Korean war before the Chinese people could go into an operation for the liberation of Taiwan.
* 1. David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 104. *2. Glenn D. Paige, The United Slates and the Korean War, Tokyo, p. 80.
*3. Washington Post, June 22, 1950. New York Herald Tribune, June 24, 1950.
As can be seen from the above, the worst political and economic crisis of the Syngman Rhee "government" in June plus the "plan for Taiwan’s liberation" in June or July put the US in an awkward position where they could no longer delay the provocation of war in Korea for the sake of their two puppets in Asia. They decided to get out of that position and tide over the two crises at the same time. They thought it was the best policy to ignite a Korean war within June to secure the bridgehead for aggression on the continent. When Dulles was leaving for Korea to "inspect" it right before June 25 on an important mission for the provocation of a Korean war, M. Chang implored for US armed intervention in Korea. He also pleaded: "We want to see that Taiwan will be protected by the United States because of its invaluable strategic location."* That threw another light on the plan of the war provokers.
* "M. Chang’s Message to Syngman Rhee. June 14, 1950." (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 83.)
Four-Bigwigs Talk in Tokyo and Dulles* Tour of South Korea
Everything in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul went according to the plan for a Korean war worked out by the US imperialists.
The urgent message on the "ruinous crisis of the Syngman Rhee government", the begging for "armed intervention" and the alleged "Taiwan crisis" did not allow the Truman Administration to put off a Korean war later than June. They went into action at once. A tense atmosphere hung over Washington. Two days after Truman received M. Chang’s report, he decided to rush the military and administrative big shots to Tokyo and Seoul, who would act for him and inform him of the start of the "northward march" after ultimately mak-
166
ing sure of the preparations for war provocation on the 38th parallel. They were Secretary of Defence Johnson, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley and Presidential envoy Dulles who would leave Washington for Tokyo respectively on the pretext of discussing a "peace treaty with Japan" and go into an "accidental" huddle at the Mac-Arthur Command. This was how the "Tokyo four-man talk" was arranged.
Now what was the mission of these four bigwigs and what did they discuss at the Tokyo talk? The important phase of it was disclosed by US correspondents in Tokyo who had often caused trouble at the time by divulging the secrets of the MacArthur Command. The New York Times wrote that the confidential nature of the talk showed they were discussing rather a very important problem than such everyday affairs as the conditions of barracks and the progress of training.*! An AP report from Tokyo said that the loss of Taiwan would gravely threaten the US defence line in the Far East.*2 The New York Times dated June 20 reported bluntly that General MacArthur, too, seemed to fully share the view on the impossibility of setting the Japanese question apart (from the Korean and Taiwan questions-Quote r). ••• It added that accordingly, they must have discussed the Korean or Taiwan question.*3 Meanwhile, Johnson, back to Washington from Tokyo, said in his June 24 statement that he had inspected every important unit in the Far East and grasped the real state of affairs.*4 The above news reports and Johnson’s statement indicate that the main subject of the Tokyo talk was not the question of a "peace treaty with Japan" as alleged by Truman but the military affairs concerning the provocation of the Korean war.
That talk was held for five days after M. Chang had informed the US imperialists of the "ruinous state of the Syngman Rhee government’1 and asked them for an immediate armed intervention. There the four big shots discussed the Korean and Taiwan questions in caucus. They had to inspect the US army units in Japan. All this suggests that they must have come to a definite decision on all military, political and diplomatic questions necessary for the all-out armed intervention of the US troops in the Korean war to be ignited by Syngman Rhee on their instruction, and that MacArthur and Syngman Rhee must have received a certain directive respectively for the start of war including the reinforcement of the Far Eastern troops. That was why the New York Herald Tribune and New York Post exposed that the four big shots had admitted the "absolute necessity of a new positive policy" and immediately ordered a detail of US special bombers, including the "newest and largest types", to the Far East.*5
167
*1. New York Times, June 21. 1950. *2.AP, Tokyo, June 19, 1950. *3. New York Times, June 20. 1950. *4. Washington Post, June 25, 1950. *5. New York Post, June 28, 1950.
The four bigwigs’ mission and their criminal plot hatched at the Tokyo talk were revealed in an ever more glaring light by the south Korean tour of John Foster Dulles, a notorious "hot war maniac" and "warmonger".
Dulles flew into south Korea after receiving the information about the "ruinous state of the Syngman Rhee government" and the "request for an urgent aid".*I According to M. Chang’s report to Syngman Rhee, Dulles came to south Korea with "a big say in preparing and deciding the Far Eastern policy of the US State Department".*2 The motive of his visit to south Korea and the mighty power conferred upon him are enough to show the
aim of that visit.
In view of the testimonies given by Kim Hyo Sok, the former Interior Minister of the Syngman Rhee "government", and Mun Hak Bong, the then advisor to the "CIC", it can be said that the mission of Dulles was to examine the war preparations of Syngman Rhee, give him a specific directive concerning the provocation of the civil war, outline the course of action after the outbreak of war, and thus bring about a "decisive turn" in the Far Eastern policy of the United States.
David W. Conde offered a detailed comment on the meaning of the "decisive turn in the Far Eastern policy of the United States", about which M. Chang had said. He wrote to this effect: In view of the then situation prevailing in Korea and China, the only likely "decisive turn" must have meant that the US policy would deliver Chiang Kai-shek instead of admitting the victory of the Chinese revolution and would give Syngman Rhee supremacy over the whole of Korea. This "decisive turn" implied the large-scale positive intervention of the US troops.*3
*1. New York Herald Tribune, June 26, 1950.
*2. "M. Chang’s Message to Syngman Rhee, June 14, 1950" {Documentary Evidences for
the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 82.)
*3. David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 95.
168
On arriving in Seoul, Dulles started bustling about to fulfil his mission. Taking puppet National Defence Minister Sin Song Mo and others along, he first went to the 38th parallel for "inspection". After looking out over the defences of the northern half and inspecting the deployment of the south Korean puppet troops on the 38th parallel (In his "souvenir picture" taken on the spot at the time, Dulles assumes the posture of signalling the attack on the north, with an operation map spread before him), Dulles said before the "ROK" army men as follows: "No strong enemy whatever would stand against you. But I hope you will strive ever harder because the day is not so far off when you’ll have to display your great might for your own sake."*i
That was June 18, a week before the outbreak of the Korean war. But at that time many people were not clear about how and when the "ROK" army, praised as the "first-rate army in Asia", would "display its might". More, they never thought the "northward march", hinted by him would start only a week after his harangue.
On the 19th, Dulles, speaking for the first time to the south Korean "National Assembly" in whose election Syngman Rhee had been a loser, blustered: "The eyes of the free world are upon you." Expressing the readiness of the United States to "give the moral and material support" to south Korea which was fighting against communism, he concluded his speech with the following words: "You are not alone. You will never be alone so long as you continue to play worthily your part in the great design for the freedom of human beings."*2 Syngman Rhee for his part pledged before Dulles at the "National Assembly": "We will win back the free world with a hot war if we lose the cold war because of our laziness. And we will fight till the Communists perish.. .."*3
Dulles’ speech at the south Korean "National Assembly" was "a statement confirming the official stand of the US policy toward south Korea".*4 It was said that Dulles’ speech had been examined in advance by Rusk, Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, and especially the last words had been carefully written by the officials of the State Department. This means that through Dulles’ mouth the US government egged on the south Korean puppets to a conflict with communism and officially hinted to them an all-out support to be given by the United States to south Korea even without an official commitment when Syngman Rhee would ignite a civil war. A carefully worded expression of it was Dulles’ words of encouragement to the south Korean puppets, that they would never be alone so long as they continued to play worthily
169
their part in the US design for the "freedom of human beings".
The data released later show that Dulles met Syngman Rhee and Sin Song Mo at the US embassy housed in the Pando Hotel, Seoul, and re-examined the "northward expedition plan" behind closed doors. He instructed them to "attack north Korea along with the counter-propaganda that north Korea had invaded south Korea first" as planned and hold out for two weeks at any cost. He reaffirmed: "If you will hold out only for two weeks, the United States will complain that north Korea attacked south Korea, and see to it that the United Nations can mobilize ground, naval and air forces under its name."*5 Then Dulles animated the stooges with the words that if a war would go as planned "the communists would eventually lose their domination over north Korea".*6
Such was the ulterior object of Dulles’ tour of south Korea made from the 17th to the 20th on a "special mission" as said by Glenn D. Paige.
*]. "Kim Hyo Sok’s Testimony. September 26, 1950." (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 127.) *2. "Proceedings of the South Korean National Assembly" (Translated from the documents of the US embassy). Glenn D. Paige, The United States and the Korean War, Tokyo, p. 82.
*3. "Proceedings of the South Korean National Assembly" (From the documents of the US embassy).
*4. Glenn D. Paige, The United Stales and the Korean War, Tokyo, p. 82. *5. "Kim Hyo Sok’s Testimony, September 26, 1950." (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 128.) Famous Australian writer Burchett wrote: "There can be no reasonable doubt that the visit of Dulles was to give the signal for the attack to be launched and to assure Syngman Rhee on the highest level that the moment the attack started, American air and naval support would be forthcoming." (This Monstrous War, p. 114.)
*6. AP, June 19, 1950, Seoul. The New York Times dated June 20, 1950 carried Dulles’ warning words at the "National Assembly": "Compromise with communism would be to take the road leading to disaster." Evidently this was an urge to turn down the June proposal of the Republic for independent peaceful reunification and a signal for starting the "march north".
While Dulles was busy urging the south Korean puppet army and police to a "northward march" and giving Syngman Rhee detailed war instructions, a grand military parade of the US 8th Army was held, reviewed by Johnson,
170
Dulles making final examination of the plan of invasion of the northerbn
half of the Republic in a trench along the 38th parallel(June 18, 1950)
Bradely and MacArthur, in the square in front of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. (Asahi Shimbun dated June 20, 1950.) This represented a challenge to and military pressure on the Korean people in their efforts for peaceful reunification and a provocative act aimed at implying what "positive action" would be like.
The aim of Dulles’ visit to Seoul and his mission were exposed to the full in his farewell messages to Syngman Rhee and "Foreign Minister" Rim Pyong Jik. On June 20 he wrote to Syngman Rhee: "/ attach great importance to the decisive role which your country can play in the great drama that is unfolding." *\ To Rim Pyong Jik he expressed the “hope for mutual help between the two countries" and concluded the letter with the meaningful words: "Above all, I appreciated the opportunity of discussing with you and with President Rhee some of the hard problems that we face, problems that will require courageous and bold decisions. " *2
Back in Tokyo, Dulles immediately went into a huddle with MacArthur, Johnson and Bradley. On the basis of his report on the real state of affairs in south Korea, they fixed the date for the start of war*3 and finally confirmed the role to be played by the puppet Syngman Rhee troops in the provocation of war and the action programme of the US ground, naval and air forces in the Far East. Then they declared to the world: "The United States will soon take some positive action."*4
At the time the world people were not clear on Dulles’ impending "great drama", on their "hard problems requiring courageous and bold decisions" and on the forthcoming "positive action" of the United States. Their true meaning could be understood only by a few who would play the "decisive role" in that "drama" and those who would organize that "positive action requiring courageous and bold decisions".
Only several days later could the world public find a clue to all of those mysterious words. As laid bare by US correspondent Stone, it was the "outbreak of the Korean war on June 25 and the June 27 commitment of the US government to large-scale intervention against communism in the Pacific area."*5
*1. Who Began the Korean War? edited by the Committee for A. Democratic Far Eastern
Policy, Tokyo, p. 41.
*2. "John Foster Dulles’ Letter to Rim Pyong Jik, June 20, 1950". (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 88.) *3. It was said that Chief of the "AMAG" in Korea had explained to Syngman Rhee why
172
June 25 had been fixed as the date of war as follows:"We have chosen the 25th and this explains our prudence. It is Sunday. It’s the Sabbath for both the United States and south Korea, Christian states. No one will believe we have started a war on Sunday. In short, it is to make people believe that we are not the first to open a war." June 25 was the last Sunday of that month. There was no alternative for them but to choose that day for a Sunday. It was June 12 that they had received Syngman Rhee’s request for urgent aid. On the 14th they sent Dulles to south Korea. He left south Korea on the 21st. Johnson and Bradley left Japan on the 23rd. So the 25th was only Sunday left in June. *4. After a talk Dulles said to the reporters that "the United States predicted its ‘positive action’ to preserve peace in the Far East." (New York Times, June 22, 1950.) *5.1.F. Stone, The Hidden History of the Korean War, Vol. I, Tokyo, p. 37.
The 38th Parallel on the Eve of June 25
The situation at the 38th parallel grew tenser all of a sudden from the day the war plotters were back after the Tokyo talk.
But it had remained tense since January 1950 when the revised plan for the provocation of a new war had been ratified. Under this plan the puppet army underwent a great change in its disposition in the whole front area south of the 38th parallel, and a huge armed force was getting ready for attack on the northern half.
The Second and Fifth Divisions of the "ROK army" which had been spread out in Taegu, Taejon, Kwangju and other areas to "mop up" the guerrillas under the "rear security plan" were moved in the direction of Kaesong, Seoul and Uijongbu and, together with the "Metropolitan Division", were deployed as the operational reserves of the Eighth, Sixth, Seventh, and First Divisions and the Seventeenth Regiment in the forward area. At the end of April 1950 the two "combat headquarters" were formed to command the five divisions deployed in the first echelon along the 38th parallel, and Chae Pyong Dok, Chief of the General Staff of the puppet army, and Kim Sok Won were appointed as their commanders respectively, one on the eastern front and the other on the western front.*l And the artillery and other units of technical services which had been under the direct control of the Army were transferred to the divisions in the first echelon, and all military supplies and equipment were concentrated on Seoul and Uijongbu.
As testified by MacArthur at the joint hearings of both Houses in April
173
1951, the "ROK army" had "concentrated all its supplies and equipment on the area along the 38th parallel", its units had made offensive dispositions, not "defensive ones in depth," and thus the whole region between the "38th parallel and Seoul" had been turned into a "logistical area".*2
*1. "Mun Hak Bong’s Radio Address, July 21, 1950." (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 104.)
*2. Mac Arthur Hearings, pp. 230-31. As early as May 19, a month before the outbreak of the war, Johnson, Chief of the ECA in Korea, said before the US House Appropriations Committee that "100,000 men and officers of the ROK army armed with US weapons and trained by Americans have wound up preparations for entering a war at any moment." (The United States Defeated, Tokyo, p. 17.) Johnson’s speech, along with Mac Arthur’s testimony, bespoke that the US imperialists had already wound up war preparations long before June 25 and had been ready to go into the "northward march" at any moment upon orders. Thus it exploded the spurious propaganda spread by those on their payroll that the "ROK army" had been in a defensive posture on the eve of June 25 and that it had failed to make any war preparations.
Willoughby, director of the Information Department of the MacArthur’s Headquarters, confessed that when a war was impending...most of the Syng-man Rhee troops had already virtually been deployed along the 38th parallel.*
*WiIloughby, MacArthur 1941-195!, p. 354.
The deployment of the 100,000 -strong force of the south Korean puppet army along the 38th parallel in an offensive posture meant that an aggression could be launched at any moment by the war incendiaries and that the situation had reached the brink of war.
In such a tense situation at the 38th parallel the People’s Army, the revolutionary armed forces of the Republic, had to strengthen its stand of defence and keep itself in full combat readiness to rout the aggressors at one stroke.
President Kim II Sung taught as follows:
"After receiving in early May 1950 the reliable information about the preparations for attack on the north, the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea could take timely measures for repelling aggression."
Having gained a scientific insight into the tense situation created due to the aggressive machinations of the US imperialists, President Kim II Sung gave
174
orders to make full preparations for crushing the enemy’s surprise attack.
Following the President’s teaching, the Korean People’s Army and Security Forces strove hard to increase their combat capacities, replenishing their ranks and strengthening their combat and political training. At the same time, they took measures from May to accommodate themselves to a state of emergency, keeping the strictest watch on the suspicious movements of the enemy. But it was in every sense the strengthening of a defensive stand aimed to smash the enemy’s invasion. That was why Roberts, the former head of the "AMAG", had to admit before reporters on May 28: "At present there is no sign of the reinforcements of the north Korean army along the 38th parallel."*!
The war provokers considered this "no sign of the reinforcements" of the People’s Army along the 38th parallel to be the "golden opportunity" for their action. Dulles, back to Tokyo after inspecting the 38th parallel, must have reported this state of affairs and advised that it would be the best policy to send the signal flare for the northward march on June 25 as planned.
Against such a background of movements, the 38th parallel was in a touch-and-go situation on the eve of June 25. According to Burchett, progressive Australian writer, "American staff officers were sitting on the parallel, American reconnaissance planes were constantly flying over the area along the 38th parallel, patrols were always probing across the 38th parallel, and a highly-organized espionage network was active behind that line".*2
According to the testimony of Han Su Hwan, the former operation officer and political instructor of the Seventeenth Regiment of the puppet army, who hung out a white flag, the former "northward expedition plan" or an ABC operational plan which would have been decided at a divisional commanders’ meeting in May and put into effect by orders of a battalion commander was cancelled, and there came down instead a new plan named the "stratagem of the general headquarters" for the whole "ROK army" to engage exclusively in training for an offensive warfare.
With June 25 drawing nearer, the officers of the "ROK army" headquarters "visited the front line in greater frequency", and Mez Stragy and seven other US military advisors were out to build up a war system, controlling the Seventeenth Regiment. To stiffen the morale of the puppet armymen, they extolled the "ROK army" equipped with the newest weapons as a "world’s first-rate army". They even blustered: "You must not only capture north Korea and regain the lost territory but occupy Manchuria, once a part of your territory."
According to the testimony of Han Su Hwan, ever since June 23 when the
175
UN military supervisor left Seoul after inspecting the Seventeenth Regiment (participants in the Tokyo four-man talk also left for Washington that day), the "situation of the front line had grown so acute" that all men could sense "some unusual things would happen". The 24th was Saturday, but all the men including the officers were confined to the barracks and ordered to keep themselves on a stand-by alert.*3
According to the report of the Home Ministry of the Republic, from 22:00 on June 23 the puppet army units at the 38th parallel which had been in a "state of emergency" went into a large-scale artillery bombardment over the area north of the 38th parallel. By the 24th they had fired more than 700 of 105-mm howitzer and 81-mm mortar shells. This bombardment launched in the wake of the Tokyo talk was the preliminary firing signalling the start of an all-out armed aggression of the US imperialists and the prelude to their "great drama" and "positive action".
*1. Roberts’ words on May 28, 1950 were recorded by AP reporter King. (Glenn D.
Paige, The United Stales and the Korean War, Tokyo, p. 89.)
*2. Wilfred Burchett, This Monstrous War, p. 121.
*3. "Han Su Hwan’s Testimony, June 29, 1950." (The Documentary Evidences for the
Provocation of a Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, pp. 90-93.)
On June 21, 1950 Jang To Yong, Director of the Information Department of the puppet army, sent spies into the northern half, while instructing Pack Son Yop, First Divisional Commander, and Yun Jung Gun, Commander of the Ninth Regiment in Pochon, to keep a peak state of vigilance. On June 23 the field intelligence unit of the puppet army infiltrated its agents into Tosong-ri and Ryangmun-ri in the forward area to spy out the mood of the people and, on June 24, Kim Pyong Ri, chief of the head office of the intelligence unit of the puppet army, crept into Tosong-ri himself. But they reported that they were "all unable to collect any data foreshadowing the June 25 event".*!
It is believed that the "northward expedition plan" by "orders of a battalion commander", exposed by Han Su Hwan, meant a war plan for 1949 or a plan for intrusion on the 38th parallel, while the new "stratagem of the general headquarters" signifying a new war provocation plan for 1950 revised with an all-out armed intervention of the US troops as its backbone.
The US imperialists and their stooges did not forget to exhibit a show of veiling their aggressive nature by the very time they enkindled the war. For one
176
thing, they spread a false rumour that on the night of the 24th a banquet was arranged on the occasion of the opening of the officers’ club of the Army Headquarters, where the "commanders from the foremost area and most of the brass hats of the Defence Ministry and Army Headquarters amused themselves late into the night". They also insisted that the "state of emergency" was lifted on the 24th and there was only one-third of the armed force in the barracks as all officers and men were granted furlough or outings. This was a thinly-veiled trick to "justify" their argument for the "armed attack of the north Korean troops", shift the blame for the provocation of war on the Republic and invent pretexts for their defeat in the war.
As disclosed by Willoughby, all the south Korean troops were given warning and deployed along the 38th parallel from a few weeks before the start of war.*2 And how could it be possible for them to leave the foremost area undefended when they allegedly knew about an "imminent attack of north Korea"? More, it is hardly imaginable in a military sense that they should have granted furlough or outings to two-thirds of the officers and men of their front line units. It is also strange that the "state of emergency" was lifted on the 38th parallel the very day after Dulles had proclaimed the start of "positive action". The pure falsity of their arguments is plainly visible from the humourous recollections of Ri Song Ga, the former Commander of the Eighth Division of the "ROK army" deployed on the eastern front. Concerning the dinner party arranged on the occasion of the opening of the officers’ club of the puppet Army Headquarters he said:"For the units in Seoul, it seemed another matter, but for me, a front line divisional commander, it was different. We had been in a state of emergency at that time. There had been a curfew order, and we had to go into battle from the dawn t>/June 25 ". *3
*1. Collection of Army War History, Vol. I, Hara Bookshop, 1975, Tokyo, p. 26.
*2. Cosmopolitan, No. 12, 1951.
*3. The Tragedy of the Korean War, Sasanggye, No. 6, 1965, Seoul.
As seen above, one who would ignite a war and the time of ignition were decided and preliminary fire opened under the baton of the US to break the calmness on the eve of the storm in the "quiet land of May and June". All that they had to do now was to get the ground units to launch an all-out offensive on orders of the MacArthur Command and the "AMAG". A war would presently break out on the 38th parallel under the criminal plot to plunge the
177
Korean people into a scourge of war, and the world public into the holocaust of another world war.
Start of War by US Imperialism, All-out Armed Intervention by US
Ground, Naval and Air Forces
Early in the morning of June 25, 1950, a large-scale aggression was started against the young Republic. The south Korean puppet army, under the direct command of the "AMAG", launched an armed invasion all along the 38th parallel on a preconceived war plan.
According to a report released on June 25 by the Ministry of the Interior of the DPRK, early that morning the enemy started its aggression against the Republic over the whole length of the 38th parallel, intruding one-two kilometres deep in the directions of Haeju, Kumchon and Cholwon.*
In the area of Ongjin-Tosong Pass in the west sector of the front, the units belonging to the First Combat Headquarters of the puppet army made an attack in two-echelon operational formation under cover of artillery fire. In the same sector, the 17th Regiment of the puppet Metropolitan Division attacked in the two directions of Taetan and Pyoksong, and in the area of Kaesong the First Infantry Division overran the territory of the northern half in three directions- Yonan-Pyongchon, Kaesong-Kumchon and Jangdan-Kuhwari.
In the area of Ryonchon, the puppet 7th Infantry Division attacked in two-echelon battle order in two directions-Tongduchonri-Ryonchon and Pochon-Kumhwa.
The units of the puppet 2nd Combat Headquarters in the eastern sector of the front assailed from two directions-Chunchon-Hwachon and Oronri-Yang-gu-in one-echelon operational formation and the 6th Infantry Division in two-echelon battle order-advanced towards Hwachon. On the east coast the 8th Infantry Division invaded from three directions-Sochi-Yangyang, Sorimri-Yangyang and Pukbunri-Yangyang.
The advance units of the 2nd Infantry Division, which had been deployed as an operational reserve, headed for Cholwon by way of Uijongbu, and the 5th Infantry Division got ready for movement.
Thus, mobilizing all the effectives of the south Korean puppet army, US imperialism launched a surprise invasion in the hope of breaking through the 38th parallel in a breath and having "breakfast in Haeju, lunch in Pyongyang
178
and supper in Sinuiju".
The Security Forces of the Republic which had been keeping a strict vigilance over the 38th parallel fought fierce battles of defence, repelling the invasion of the enemy, in order to safeguard the Party and the people’s power and defend the sacred territory of the fatherland and the peaceful labour of the peo-pie.
The Government of the Republic resolutely demanded that the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique stop their adventurous act of war at once, warning that if they did not stop the aggression but would continue, it would take a decisive step to pressure the enemy and they would then bear full responsibility for all the consequences arising from their hazardous act of war.
Disregarding this grave warning of the Government of the Republic, the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique made desperate efforts to spread the war flames further, instead of stopping hostilities.
To cope with the prevailing situation, President Kim II Sung lost no time to call a Political Committee Meeting of the Party Central Committee and an emergency session of the Cabinet and took resolute steps for administering an annihilating blow at the enemy. He ordered the Republic’s Security Forces and People’s Army to go over to counteroffensive immediately. Thus started the Korean people’s just Fatherland Liberation War to repulse the US invasion and defend the freedom and independence of the fatherland.
*In his book The Riddle of Mac Arthur, John Gunther wrote that on June 25 when he and his party were on an excursion to Nikko with a high-ranking officer of MacArther’s staff whose name was withheld, this officer was urgently called to the telephone by the General Headquarters just before noon. "He came back," writes Gunther, "and whispered ‘a big story has just broken. The south Korean army has attacked north Korea!*’* (The Riddle of MacArthur, p. 257.) Gunther gave a long and boring explanation that the information of the MacArthur Headquarters might have had a garbed version of the affair, but those words of its high-ranking officer were perfect confirmation of exactly what did happen. Another evidence of the premeditation of the puppet army’s all-out attack on the northern half is shown by the facts that US imperialism carried away American wives from south Korea by ship right before its provocation of war and that a plan for the evacuation of Americans had been worked out in advance. New York Herald Tribune reported on the contents of the talks with the captain of a Norwegian boat Reinford as follows: "The Norwegian captain told how he and his crew had evacuated 650 women and children from Inchon Port of south Korea just two-three hours before the north Korean communists
179
invaded south Korea. When the captain, Johnson, awoke in the boat half past five in the morning, an American missionary asked him to help evacuate by his boat 650 women and children who wished to escape an imminent danger." (New York Herald Tribune, August 26, 1950.) At that time it was said there was little symptoms of war in the north of the 38th parallel. (Muccio reported that the People’s Army crossed the 38th parallel at six in the morning.) So, without a plan for provoking a war, there could not be such a thing as to anticipate defeat and evacuate women and children before the opening of hostilities. Pointing out in his article that a definite plan for the evacuation of Americans was laid out before the start of war, Whitney wrote: Late on that Sunday there was a phone call. Ambassador Muccio asked if the evacuation plan was carried out. (Courtney Whitney, Mac Arthur, His Rendezvous with History, p. 320.)
The New York Times reported in its June 24, 1950, issue that the United States would rush a considerable amount of "aid weapons" to south Korea according to a plan prepared in advance.
The start of a counteroffensive by the Korean People’s Army was a crushing blow to the aggressors. The US imperialists had fully foreseen the possibility of the defeat of the puppet army. So, in order to cope with the counteroffensive of the Korean People’s Army, they set their hand to the next step-the immediate all-out armed intervention of the US ground, naval and air forces. However, for fear of denunciation of world public opinion they applied very crafty methods: to shift the responsibility for war on to the Republic and to launch all-out armed intervention in the abused name of the UN on the plea of "repulsing aggression". In committing the armed intervention, they first-until the adoption of the June 25 UN resolution-hurled in their air and naval forces under the pretext of covering the "evacuation of Americans" and then, after "legalizing" their armed intervention in the name of the UN, went over to all-out armed invasion by mobilizing all their armed forces including the ground force. Since this "step-by-step" method had been devised in advance, it was passed unanimously already at a meeting of the government leaders on the first day of war, and it took only five-six short days to be introduced to the full extent.
The process of development of this plot clearly revealed the true colours and craftiness of the US aggressors.
At the first moment of war, the US rulers stated that the Korean war was "quite an unforeseen event" and tried to describe the state of affairs as if they had been "invaded by surprise".
180
When the south Korean puppet army started a civil war at the instigation of US imperialism (around 2.00-3.00 o’clock in the afternoon of the 24th to American time), the prime movers of the war were assuming an air of innocence. They were hiding separately in the name of "weekend holidays" just like children playing hide-and-seek, and this unusual act drew little attention from the people of Christian countries, the Western world, at the time.
Truman, together with his family, was at his home in Missouri to spend "weekend". Acheson was away on his plantation in Maryland and Dulles was in Kyoto on a "weekend trip". It was said that Johnson and Bradley had just returned from a Pacific flight, MacArthur and Muccio were "sleeping" in their homes, Roberts left Yokohama Port on his homeward voyage as he was recalled, and his successor Colonel Wright was staying at Yokohama to see his wife off home by the same boat. Secretary of the Army Frank J. Pace and Undersecretary of State in charge of the Far East affairs Rusk were attending a dinner party given by a family in George Town. Even the important members of the MacArthur Command in Tokyo adjacent to Korea were said to have gone out on an excursion "without knowing anything" about the happening until the noon of that Sunday several hours after the outbreak of war, and all of them "were given the first warning of the war" there. What is more strange is that the US government received the first news of the Korean war not through MacArthur, Muccio or Syngman Rhee but through the news dispatch wired by Jack James, UP correspondent in Seoul, and that it was seven hours after the start of the war that it obtained "unconfirmed" data through the official channel. This is ludicrous nonsense for the US government with developed communication facilities and a ramified network of espionage all over the globe. The abnormal propaganda on the part of the US government, of course, started suspicion in no small number of people in those days.
Then why was it that the US government could not but stage such a nonsensical drama so recklessly? John Gunther said: "Our eyes were shut, and even our feet were sound asleep."*! This remark of Gunther clearly reveals their objective. They attempted to fabricate a "ground" for a false report that they had been "invaded by surprise" from north Korea when they had been asleep, their heads rested on high pillows, and that another "Pearl Harbour Incident" had been reproduced by the Korean communists. Here is the real objective of their hide-and-seek drama.
The US rulers staged another drama for the next stage in an attempt to abuse the name of the United Nations.
181
In this, the US imperialists made Muccio’s report a "legal ground". Muc-cio’s "first report" to the State Department was said to have reached the recipient at 9.26 p.m. on the 24th (US Eastern Standard Time which is 14 hours behind the Korean time) more than six hours after their provocation of war in Korea. The report reads:
"According to Korean army reports which partly confirmed by KMAG field advisor reports north Korean forces invaded ROK territory at several points this morning. Action was initiated at 4.00 a.m. Ongjin blasted by north Korean artillery fire. About 6.00 a.m. north Korean infantry commenced crossing the parallel in Ongjin area, Kaesong area, Chunchon area and amphibian landing was reportedly made south of Kangrung on east coast. Kaesong was reportedly captured at 9.00 a.m., with some 10 north Korean tanks participating in operation. North Korean forces, spearheaded by tanks, reportedly closing in on Chunchon. Details of fighting in Kangrung are unclear, although it seems north Korean forces have cut highway. Am conferring with KMAG advisors and the Korean officials this morning re situation. It would appear from nature of attack and manner in which it was launched that it constitutes all-out offensive against ROK."*2
*1. John Gunther, The Riddle ofMacArthur, Tokyo, p. 259.
*2. The US Department of State, The US Policy in the Korean Crisis, New York, p. 1. And on the same day the "United Nations Commission on Korea", too, sent a similar report to the UN Secretary General stressing that all the data were "unconfirmed" as they were based on the informations obtained from the Syngman Rhee "government". Accordingly, it did not deny that its conclusion was no more than guesswork. In the opening sentences this report, for example, says: "The ROK government states that about 4.00 a.m. on the 25th June the north Korean army launched a large-scale attack along the whole 38th parallel....Rumours are circulating that north Korea declared war through radio Pyongyang at 11.00 a.m., but this has not been confirmed in all quarters.... The Commission will communicate more fully considered recommendation later." (The United Nations, Document S/PV 473.)
Muccio’s report, as he admitted, was based on "unconfirmed" and "uncertain" data. The US rulers, however, did not try to confirm those "unconfirmed" fragmentary data. They felt no need of doing so. The report was a preconceived one and its mission was originally to coin "north Korean aggression". If they brought a suit in the UN against the "north Korean aggression", using it as
182
the first "legal ground", and had the UN adopt a resolution for the dispatch of supporting troops to repel the aggression in the name of the UN, the US armed intervention would be "legal".
Since there was such a premeditated plan, Truman thought it necessary, first of all, to "appeal" to the UN against the "north Korean aggression", and Dulles in Tokyo and Acheson in Washington demanded simultaneously the convocation of the UN Security Council.* So, no sooner had Muccio’s report reached than Hickerson, Assistant Secretary of State, asked the UN Secretary-General, Trygvie Lie, to call a UN Security Council meeting. The following day (25th), at 3.00 a.m., in New York the US representative to the UN, Ernest A. Gross, called the Secretary-General in bed, read to him Muccio’s report revised by the officials of the Department of State (they inserted in the original text the words "declaration of war" by north Korea which was groundless) and asked the "immediate convocation of a UN Security Council meeting" on the "basis of the urgent request of the US government".
*The news of the successful provocation of the Korean war was conveyed by Acheson to Truman in his mansion in Missouri at 10 p.m. (American time) on the 24th. Acheson proposed him by phone that, though the details of situation in Korea was not yet available, "the United States, on its part, should ask the UN to hold a meeting and declare an act of aggression had been committed against the Republic of Korea", and Truman asked him to request immediately a Security Council meeting. At 11.30 a.m. on the 25th he asked him to get together with the Service Secretaries and Chiefs of Staff and Chiefs of Operations. (Truman, Memoirs, Vol. IT, Tokyo, pp. 234-235.) This brazen-faced act of the US rulers to compel the UN to endorse the "unconfirmed" data, although they confessed that they did not know well about the actual situation at the time of the outbreak of war, and get it to call a Security Council meeting, asking it to brand north Korea as an "aggressor" does justice to the testimony of Hickerson who confessed that a "draft resolution" of the UN had already been prepared before the war.
From then on, everything progressed rapidly according to the prearranged plan. According to the commentators, the swift use of discretion by the US government was unprecedented in the history of the United States.
Compelled by the United States, an emergency meeting of the Security Council was held at 2.00 p.m. on the 25th. The Soviet representative was absent, and the representative of the People’s Republic of China was kept out of its lawful seat. The "grounds" for the meeting and debate were Muccio’s
183
report of June 25 and the belated report of the same day sent by the "UN Commission on Korea". The report was based on the unconfirmed data as Muccio himself admitted that he could not confirm the truth; it was also based on the false material prepared and provided by the puppet government under previous instruction from Dulles. *i
In fact, at that time the "UN Commission on Korea" "had witnessed nothing". It did not produce any objective data for a UN debate, and inserted in its report the false report of the Syngman Rhee puppet government and Muccio’s views intentionally.
UN Secretary-General Trygvie Lie who had been much indebted to the United States, regarding the fraudulent documents as the only "legal ground", called the meeting in spite of the opposition of some countries. And the meeting was not to argue over the responsibility for the outbreak of war but, from the first, to give "north Korea the verdict of guilty".
At the meeting, the US representative, Gross, submitted, without presenting any ground, a "draft resolution" defining the DPRK as "aggressor".*2 The draft resolution was an enlarged version of the "gist of the draft resolution" which had been ratified by the officials of the US Department of State before the war. After a debate, the phrase "the armed aggression of north Korea" in the US draft resolution was replaced by the "armed attack on the Republic of Korea". And a "resolution" was rushed through demanding the "withdrawal of the north Korean army back to the 38th parallel" while urging both parties to "stop the act of war".
The "resolution" of the 25th of the UN Security Council was utterly unreasonable because it was adopted without the presence of the representative of the DPRK and the representatives of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, both the permanent members of the council. And the debate was based only on the "unconfirmed" reports and it was serious intervention in the internal affairs of Korea. So, it was untenable.
*1. John Frat, Chief of the Far Eastern Section of the British Intelligence Bureau, in the April 18, 1951 issue of Peace News, pointed out the fact that on June 25 the UN Security Council acted completely at the discretion of the United States without telling right from wrong and losing impartiality and objectiveness. Condemning this, he cited the following instance: The verdict of "guilty" given to the DPRK was bused on the telegram sent by the UN Commission in Seoul which told that there was no evidence as to which side had launched attack. The text of telegram from Seoul was withheld. In other words, the texts
184
of Muccio’s report and the report of the military inspection group of the "UN Commission on Korea" were not read in the meeting, and the meeting was called and a "resolution" was thus railroaded on the basis of the forged document of the US government in which the faked fact about "north Korea’s declaration of war" was inserted. *2. Airing his opposition to the propaganda of his government which defined the DPRK as the aggressor, even US journalist Stone, the author of The Hidden History of Korean War cited the following fact as the reason:...The DPRK was then in an unfavourable condition for launching a war, because, firstly, as was pointed out in the July 30 report of the MacArthur Command on the situation of the battle, the "north Korean army could not complete its mobilization programme (13-15 divisions) on June 25 when the war started...., and got only six divisions to complete preparations for action; secondly, the Soviet Union was then unable to exercise a veto because it was absent from the Security Council. It is hard to believe that it could open fire first before completing war preparations, and it is also hard to think that it started war first when a veto could not be placed on the US proposal. And, when Syngman Rhee was faced with ruin as a result of the DPRK’s peace offensive and the failure of the May 30 election, there might be no need striking on purpose at the "government which might be replaced with a new government ready to enter immediately into negotiation for reunification." These were the major reasons he gave. (The Hidden History of the Korean War, Vol. I, Tokyo, pp. 87-89.)
The June 25 "resolution" itself, however, was still short of giving "legality" to the US scheme for all-out armed intervention. That was why Gross, in his radio interview held at Lake Success after the meeting, spoke vehemently that if north Korea did not accept their unfair "resolution," "the means the Security Council can take...include economic means, the use of military force or the possibility of taking other kinds of sanctions".*! His words hinted to the people at home and abroad what the measure was the United States was going to take next and betrayed that the all-out intervention in the Korean war in the name of the UN was a prearranged plan of the United States.
The next measure of the US government suggested by Gross with regard to the Korean war was taken three hours after the adoption of the June 25 "resolution" of the Security Council and two days before the adoption of the June 27 "resolution" of the Security Council which "approved" the US plan for armed intervention in the Korean war.
Around 8.00 p.m. on June 25, the Secretary of State, Undersecretaries of State, Secretary of Defence, Secretaries of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and Chiefs of General Staffs held the first secret confab at Blair House
185
upon order of Truman, where they deliberated over the "rational ways" of the US army’s intervention. There, the Acheson memorandum was passed without amendment,*2 which contained the following points: 1) To authorize MacArthur to ship to south Korea military equipment in addition to what was provided in the "US-ROK mutual defence and aid pact";2) To use the air force in the name of evacuation of Americans, and this air force is authorized to destroy the airplanes and tanks of the People’s Army that "hinder the rescue of Americans"; 3) To dispatch the 7th Fleet to Taiwan to prevent the liberation of Taiwan; 4) To take into consideration what "aid" should be given to south Korea on the basis of the June 25 “resolution” and subsequent "resolution" of the Security Council of the United Nations-this was, as Gross said, also preconceived by US imperialism.
*1. Glenn D. Paige, The United States and the Korean War, Tokyo, p. 133.
*2.Ibid.,p. 138.
Truman. Memoirs, Vol. II, Tokyo, pp. 236-37.
But, two hours prior to the meeting the US Department of State had already informed
Muccio that a resolution on the US armed intervention would be carried several hours
later and instructed him to suspend the planned withdrawal of the "AMAG" from Korea
and have it "stay there, lending active cooperation to the south Korean army". (Ibid., p.
35.) This fact bespeaks that the US army’s all-out intervention was not discussed first at
Blair House but had already been envisaged in the war plan.
Developments showed that action preceded the practical decision and proved that all of such resolutions were nothing but ex post facto recognition. Mac Arthur’s action anteceded the government’s instruction, and the US government’s action went ahead of the UN resolution. This meant that all the US acts of war were performed according to a general plan drawn up already before the outbreak of war and that the US army was not acting on the UN resolution and that the UN resolution was no more than ex post facto "approval" of the US aggressive act.
The question discussed at the first Blair House meeting in the night on June 25, too, was, in fact, nothing but matters of procedure for the prearranged all-out armed intervention of the US ground, naval and air forces. Therefore, already on the evening of the 25th before the adoption of the June 27 Security Council resolution on the UN member states’ "aid" to south Korea, Truman declared that all the "aid" the United States offered south Korea would be
186
under the UN flag, whatever they might be, and he instructed the three Chiefs of Staffs to "prepare necessary orders in advance" so that the US armed forces could be all mobilized in the name of the UN, *
*Truman, Memoirs, Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 355.
June 26 in Washington was the most criminal day in the blood-stained aggressive annals of US imperialism when an all-out armed intervention in Korea was formally decided and an order was ratified on reducing Korean towns and villages to heaps of ashes and massacring young and old.
That night, a little past 9.00, the second confab of the ringleaders of war was held at Blair House. Truman, who had received from MacArthur a report on the situation telling that the "south Korean army is unable to resist north Korea’s attack" and "a complete defeat is close at hand", said that "the Republic of Korea must be rescued at once before it is trampled down", "recognized without substantial amendment" Acheson’s five-point proposal on the mobilization of the US naval and air forces of the Korean front,* and ordered that the resolution of the meeting be made known to MacArthur for immediate execution.
*Acheson’s five-point proposal placed before the meeting was as follows: 1) "The US naval and air forces shall do their utmost to support the south Korean army;" 2) "The 7th Fleet shall be dispatched to check the Chinese communist army’s attack on Taiwan and restrict the Kuomintang army’s act against the mainland;" 3) "The US army in the Philippines shall be reinforced and at the same time the military aid to the Philippine government increased;" 4) "The military aid to Indochina shall be promoted and a military mission dispatched;" 5) Austin shall make reports to the UN on the US acts upon this resolution and, at the same time, make preparations so that the Security Council can decide on the "special aid" to south Korea.... (The United Stales and the Korean War, p. 173.)
Thus, an "anti-communist crusade expedition" for promoting the programme of world domination in Asia after the Second World War was formally decided at Blair House, and at noon on the 27th Truman officially announced it to the world through a presidential statement. Johnson said that this meeting marked "the greatest moment in the history of the United States" because its resolution was a declaration of the formal start of all-out war for the realization of the world domination programme with Korea as the theatre.
187
At the Blair House meeting, the question of dispatch of the US ground force was not discussed and it was decided to restrict the air and naval forces’ operational zones for intervention to the area south of the 38th parallel. This, however, was a mere formality for deceiving world public opinion. In actuality, all-out armed intervention by the US forces including the ground force had already been started and the operational zones of the air and naval forces covered the whole land of Korea from the outset. The aircraft (B-29) sent by MacArthur appeared over Korea in the daytime on the 26th (Korean time) and were perpetrating indiscriminate bombing, and the 7th Fleet moved to Taiwan
Strait that day.
The following facts clearly tell that the dispatch of the ground force was decided previously. According to what was exposed by Washington Post, at 3.00 a.m. on June 27 (American time, that is, five hours after the second Blair House meeting) the chief of the puppet army intelligence bureau made a radio address in Korean to the following effect:
"At 4.00 p.m. June 27 (Korean time), I was informed by the MacArthur Command that a field command post of the headquarters would be set up in Seoul immediately. From next morning the US air force will sally directly and the ground force, too, gradually go into action. The ROK army will defend the present position to the last...."*
This report was repeated several times at intervals of ten minutes accompanied with marches. It was a special programme arranged by the US government on the recommendation of MacArthur which was aimed at bringing up the fighting morale of the dilapidated south Korean puppet army by informing it alone, in advance, of the United States’ general plan. As Truman instructed to ban the announcement of all statements before he made an official statement on the 27th, the high-ranking policy-makers of the US had agreed upon reporting their pian in Korean (English reports were prohibited) and broadcasted it through Radio Seoul.
^Washington Post. June 28, 1950.
George Kennan later described this crafty plot as the "victory of the perspicacious wisdom of the US", but it was no more than the self-betrayal of the craftiness of the US before the world. Following the radio address, the American radios and the MacArthur Command announced a statement negating the report of Radio Seoul which was made at their dictation. And two days later, in contradiction to this statement, they issued an order for dispatch of the ground force.
188
All these facts show that the question of step-by-step expansion of the US air and naval forces’ participation in the war-they were sent at first in the name of covering the evacuation of Americans with alleged restriction of their operational zone to south Korea, but it was soon extended to the whole of Korea-and the question of dispatch of the ground force had been included in the plan of the leading US rulers such as Truman, Acheson and Johnson already from the first days of war, and that the plan had, in fact, been worked out before June 25. A positive proof of it is that Truman instructed to make an "appeal" to the United Nations immediately after he was informed by Acheson only by phone about the outbreak of war in Korea and without asking for detailed reports and that he said to his aide, "north Korea must be smashed mercilessly".
The very fact that the question of armed intervention in Korea and Taiwan and the question of military aid to Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines were readily decided on at the Blair House and other meetings debating on the intervention in the Korean war without hearing any detailed reports from the Secretary of Defence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the military situation in Korea is hardly possible without a previous deep study and a prearranged action programme. They said Acheson’s proposals made on two occasions were based on a serious consideration of the attitudes to the Soviet Union and China, but it is hard to believe that such a "serious consideration" was taken in a day by those officials who were spending "weekends" separately. The fact that such important military decisions that might cause a third world war were made and executed at a rapid pace unprecedented in US history while going through the definite steps of procedure "carefully", too, shows what deliberate intrigue was behind all the resolutions, statements, orders and military acts right after the outbreak of war. That is why immediately after it publications of many countries of the world condemned the US government, saying that all the actions it had taken regarding the Korean war were according to a prearranged general plan and that various meetings, resolutions and orders were, in reality, the "ex post facto approval" of the actions already taken or the steps of procedure to leave "documentary evidences".
One of the unreasonable acts of ex post facto approval of the crimes committed by the war incendiaries was that the United Nations danced to the tune of the United States.
President Kim II Sung said:
"It is known to the whole world that the vicious US imperialists mobilized
189
their air force and started to support the military acts of the Syngman Rhee clique from the first day of its invasion of the northern half to ignite a fratricidal war and that the United Nations adopted illegal resolutions on the so-called Korean question under the pressure of US imperialism after its start of armed intervention in our country. Nevertheless, the US imperialists are brazen-faced-ly perpetrating shameless false propaganda that their armed aggression on our country is based on the UN resolution."
From the first day of war US imperialism manoeuvred to use the United Nations as a tool for "justifying" its aggressive act according to its plan.
If the June 25 resolution of the UN Security Council was adopted after the start of the military intervention of the US air force, the Security Council meeting held on June 27 at the request of the US government served as a "legal" occasion for "approving" post factum the criminal decision of the Blair House meeting in the evening on June 26 and Truman’s statement issued at noon on the 27th and for covering the barbarous US aggressive acts with the UN signboard.
At the meeting, US representative Austin submitted a "resolution" urging "the United Nations... to induce the member states to offer necessary aid to the Republic of Korea in order to repulse the armed attack and restore international peace and security". Despite the opposition and abstention with regard to the US proposal, a "resolution" was unjustly adopted under US pressure at 11.54 p.m. that day allowing the armed intervention in Korea by the UN member states (the United States and its satellites). This happened 12 hours after the issue of Truman’s notorious June 27 statement which officially announced the US armed intervention in Korea and 24 hours after the second Blair House meeting. In this way, the United States embellished once more its barbarous armed intervention with the name of the United Nations, and the United Nations, in contravention of its Charter, played a dishonourable role in "justifying" the United States’ high-handed interference in the internal affairs of another country.*
*Later the US ruling circles themselves admitted that the United States started military intervention before it got the "approval" of the United Nations. At the "MacArthur Hearings" in May 1951, Senator Harry Berd questioned Bradley, who gave the following testimony:
Bradley: On June 26 an order sanctioning the use of US naval and air forces against the north Korean army in the area south of the 38th parallel reached MacArthur from the Joint
190
Chiefs of Staff.
Berd: You mean our army actually has gone into intervention before the UN approval? Bradley: To help the evacuation of Americans, the air force and the navy started intervening on the previous da\.
Berd: But the "order on the use of the US naval and air forces against the north Korean army in the area south of the 38th parallel" says nothing of the evacuation of Americans. Does this mean that the nava! and air forces went into war at once? Bradley: Yes, it does.
Berd: And did they do that 12 hours before it was approved at the United Nations? Bradley: Because we deemed it necessary to back the evacuation of our nationals. Berd: Meanwhile, it contradicts your yesterday’s statement that our army went to Korea according to the UN resolution. The point, therefore, is that the fighting was actually going on with the north Korean army one day before the adoption of the UN resolution. (David W.Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 162.)
The US rulers made the United Nations their tools also in the questions of setting up the "UN Forces" and "UN Command". On July 7, 1950, the UN Security Council adopted, without amendment, the infamous US government’s "draft resolution" on the establishment of the "UN Command" under US command and on the appointment of the "Commander of the UN Forces" by the United States. Thus, by allowing the aggressor troops to wear the UN helmets, the United Nations put the first blot on its history. However, one week before the adoption of this "resolution", in other words, at a time when the world did not yet know the official title of Commander of the UN Forces, Truman made public that "MacArthur is Commander of the US Armed Forces in the Far East and at the same time Commander of the UN Forces" and stated that all the military acts of the United States thereafter would be at once those stemming from the UN measures.*! Particularly astonishing are the facts that the US government regarded the headquarters of the US Armed Forces in the Far East as the "UN Command" from right after the outbreak of the war on June 25 and that MacArthur was ordered to act as the "Commander of the UN Forces" from then on.*2 That is why even the right-wing publications, too, wrote that the July 7 "resolution" of the UN Security Council was not the product of the United Nations, and branded it as a "US resolution" and "Truman’s resolution".*3
*1. At 11.00 on June 30, 1950, answering M.C. Connally’s interpellation at the joint meeting with the Congress leaders as to if the dispatch of the US ground force had the
191
support of the UN resolution, Truman said that the "United Stales’ acts are all measures taken within the bounds of the UNO and MacArthur is Commander of the US Armed Forces in the Far East as well as of the UN Forces." (Connolly, p. 349.) *2. In his writing, Willoughby cited the following words of the President of the United Press: "MacArthur said to me (President of the UP-Quoter) that he was called on the long-distance phone at 4 o’clock that morning to receive an instruction as to taking charge of the defence of south Korea on behalf of the United Nations, which surprised me very much" (Willoughby, MacArthur 1941^951, p. 356).
*3. In his book Korean War, even the Japanese bourgeois historian, Kamiya Fuji, could not but comment that "the three UN Security Council resolutions of June 25, June 27 and July 7 are, in reality, the US resolutions" and that the UN General Assembly resolution of October? is "Truman’s resolution". (Korean War, Tokyo, 1951, p. 77.)
The all-out armed intervention in the Korean war by the US troops was carried out under the name of the United Nations due to the shameless manoeuvre of the US imperialists. And the US imperialists set out on the road of expanding the war, while withdrawing their previous restrictive steps and orders one by one. At 5.00 p.m. on June 29 (American time) Truman called the Second National Security Council meeting, where he withdrew his June 26 order that restricted the operational zone of the naval and air forces to the area south of the 38th parallel and decided to give MacArthur the right to expand the operations of the air and naval forces to the areas of north Korea and to "bring in the limited combat force of the infantry for the defence of the ports, airports and landing spots in the Pusan area."*l This decision was immediately sent to MacArthur. And the June 29 order concerning the dispatch of a limited scale of ground force to Korea was withdrawn at the ministerial council at the White House at 9.30 a.m. the following day at the request of MacArthur, and Truman invested MacArthur with "full powers to use the armed forces (the US Army Forces in the Far E&st-Quoter) under his command.*2 This order was issued at 1.22 p.m., and Dean, Commander of the 24th Division of the US 8th Army, was ordered to Korea already at 8.45 p.m. and rushed the Smith’s battalion to the Korean front by C-54 transports.*3
*1. Glenn D. Paige, The United States and the Korean War, Tokyo, p. 249.
*2. Truman, Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 238.
*3. Glenn D. Paige, The United States and the Korean War, Tokyo, p. 264.
192
However, seven and a half hours earlier before the adoption of the June 29 resolution of the National Security Council meeting, MacArthur on an airplane flying to Suwon had ordered Partridge, Commander of the 5th Air Force, to "attack north Korea at once!"*l without asking his government. He set up an advance commanding post in Suwon and stationed there even the 507th automatic anti-aircraft unit.*2 Around that time, another ground unit was brought near Pusan to secure "harbours, air bases and landing spots". Therefore, even Washington’s mouthpiece Glenn D. Paige could not but admit that Smith’s unit crushed on the Osan line on July 5 "was the first US infantry that engaged the enemy but not the first ground force that went to the front". *3 That a field army commander decided on and dealt with by himself such an important problem prior to the official order from the higher authorities tells that he had been informed of the general plan of the war beforehand.
In this way, the US imperialists settled as they had planned all the problems in five short days following the provocation of the war-even the formal matters for shifting the responsibility for war onto the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, perpetrating all-out armed invasion by all services and arms ranging from air and naval forces to the ground force and "legalizing" the crime in the name of the United Nations. All that was left to do now was to summarize their dazzling "exploits" performed in the five days for the sake of the "free world" and get them known to the world so that they might "legally" enter the Korean war and expand it full-scale while flouting the world public opinion.
For this, the White House issued a carefully-knit report revealing the facts that on June 30, 1950, in compliance with the "request" of the UN Security Council the President "instructed the US air force to bomb all the apparent military targets in north Korea in case of operational necessity and ordered to blockade the whole coast of the Korean peninsula" and that he also "authorized General MacArthur to use a certain support ground unit."*4
* 1. Appleman, South to the Naktong, p. 44.
*2. & 3. Glenn D. Paige, The United States and the Korean War, Tokyo, p. 260.
*4. Ibid.
This formal report may be interpreted as meaning that the air boming against the northern
half of the Republic is allowed only at apparent military targets in case of operational
necessity and that the ground force to be dispatched to Korea had to be a limited strength
of "support ground force" which was to conduct only support operations. However, the
193
order sent to MacArthur said that he could have the unlimited use of all the armed forces under the headquarters of the Armed Forces in the Far East. And the bombing against the northern half was, from the outset, indiscriminative of military targets and peaceful establishments according to the violent order-"Blow all the towns in north Korea off the globe!"; it was constant, without being limited to the "time of operational necessity".
From then on, the US carried out "scorched-earth" operations under the pretext of striking "military targets", perpetrated indiscriminate naval bombardment against towns and villages under the name of "coastal blockade" and hurled hundreds of thousands of picked troops to the Korean front for "mass murder operations" under the plea of dispatching "some support ground troops". Taking advantage of their numerical as well as military-technical superiority, the US imperialists rushed headlong into the adventure of occupying the whole of Korea while employing the most brutal tactics ever known in the history of mankind.
However, the US war plan suffered setbacks at every step in the face of the counteroffensive of the heroic Korean People’s Army which had risen up for the freedom and independence of the fatherland.
MacArthur, who was formally authorized by Truman on June 30 to throw onto the Korean front all the ground units under the headquarters of the US Armed Forces in the Far East, placed under his command all the ground, naval and air forces on the Pacific including the 7th Fleet and the 5th Air Force. Afterwards, he came to exercise his authority as "Commander of the UN Forces" on the strength of the "July 7 resolution" of the UN Security Council on the setting up of the "UN Command" led by the United States. On July 15, he held concurrently the post of commander-in-chief of the puppet ground, naval and air forces at the "written request" of Syngman Rhee. Behaving like a "sovereign of the Far East", MacArthur attempted to occupy Korea at a stroke.
MacArthur hurled to the Korean front such renowned murderous war generals as US 8th Army Commander Walker, Dean, Keiser, Gay and all the "ever-victorious divisions" which boasted of their "invincibility" in several wars from the Civil War to the Second World War, but could never change the tide of war which was turning against him.
The US imperialists were driven out of Seoul on the third day after their provocation of war due to President Kim II Sung’s outstanding military strategy and wise leadership. In the wake of it, "Smith’s special attack" unit was smashed to bits at the Osan line, and Suwon, the enemy’s "second stronghold",
194
gave way like a landslide at the hand of the mighty Korean People’s Army that advanced like angry waves.
The military clique in Washington had firmly believed the speculation of the Western press that "The appearance of the US troops will heighten the morale of the south Korean army and bring about the retreat of the north Korean army". MacArthur had been bragging that "the two US divisions are enough to support Korea".
However, reality completely altered their haughty optimistic view. President Kim II Sung said:
"Our heroic People’s Army has succeeded in liberating almost all the areas of the southern half, crushing everywhere the US aggressive troops invading our land, amidst the unbounded love and support of the entire people. In this course of war the US 24th Division and the First Cavalry Division suffered a severe blow, and the front line has been moved south down to the shores of the Rakdong River."
Beaten by the advancing heroic Korean People’s Army, the US aggressive troops were literally covered with wounds. MacArthur, the "sovereign of the Far East", was unable to check the advance of the KPA although he threw into the war not two divisions but all the effectives of the 8th Army plus the 5th Air Force and the 7th Fleet.
The US 24th Division, which had boasted of being "ever-victorious" in scores of aggressive wars, was completely routed in Taejon and its commander, Dean, was captured. The 25th Division and the First Cavalry Division were later brought from Japan, but they failed to save Taejon, the "second capital". "With the major part of the 8th Army deployed in Korea," the enemy openly blared, "the first phase of the battle has ended and at the same time the north Korean army’s chance of victory has gone." But the 8th Army which had vaunted over its numerical and technical superiority was routed continuously by the young People’s Army of Korea, a small country. In August it was pressed into a narrow area linking Phohang, Taegu and Masan.
The mercenary troops of US imperialism who were driven back to the bridgehead of Pusan were trembling with horror of "death, sorrow, and despair", comparing their lot to the "calves in a public slaughterhouse". Seeing such a wretched plight of the US army, the Western press commented in those days that the whole world "witnessed how the powerful armed forces of the United States are waging a hopeless severe bloody war and how the army of north Korea, the smallest country, has repelled the US army and is driving it
195
into the sea".*l Even those writers patronized by US imperialism looked at Korea with dubious eyes, saying: “Small north Koreans are fighting as bravely as tigers" but why are the US army and "ROK army" "routed like sheep"? In the end they could not but admit the fact that the Korean people "have very skilfully let the United States taste the most disgraceful defeat in its history".*2 The myth of the "mightiness" of US imperialism which had bragged of being the world’s strongest began to be exploded in Korea.
*1. & 2. John Gunther. The Riddle ofMacArthur, Tokyo, p. 297.
As a result of the heroic struggle of the Korean People’s Army, 90 per cent of the whole territory of the southern half and 92 per cent of the south Korean population were liberated from the colonial rule of US imperialism. In the liberated areas, the Party organizations, ruling bodies, and social organizations were organized, and the agrarian reform and various other democratic reforms were carried out. Under the care of the President, the south Korean people embarked on the road of creating a new, happy life.
The defeat of the US army occasioned an outcry within the US ruling circles. They said: "A tragedy may take place in Washington." The US allies laughed with scorn at the unsightly figure of their leader who had been beaten by "a small country in the Far East" and was bleeding on the shores of the Rak-
dong River.
The US imperialists, however, did not draw lessons from this. Successive defeats made the US aggressors desperate. With a view to saving themselves from the "fate of being driven into the sea", they fought tooth and nail, sticking to the most barbaric tactics in human history.
196
4. US Imperialism’s Thrice-cursed Atrocities against Korean People
1) Atrocity of Mass Murder Committed by US Imperialism against the Korean People
From the first days of their provocation of the Korean war, the US rulers used all the methods of war, coupling the numerical and technical superiority with American-style brutality and inhumanity. They had a delusion that they could frighten the Korean people and easily subdue them.
Speaking of the tactics to be employed by the US army right after the outbreak of war by US imperialism, the US war maniac, Dens, raved: "I am in favour of the use of germ warfare, gas, atomic and hydrogen bombs. I cannot take a sympathetic attitude towards hospitals, churches, schools or any group of inhabitants. Charity toward any group will be nothing more than hypocrisy."*
*Pravda, August 6, 1950.
The US aggressors, as befitting such brutal nature of fascist hangmen, committed atrocities of mass slaughter against the Korean people from the first days of war.
While taking flight to the south in face of the heroic counteroffensive of the Korean People’s Army, they perpetrated all sorts of atrocities such as murder, incendiarism, plunder and destruction everywhere in south Korea.
Even according to the data confirmed by the initial investigation, the US aggressors murdered innumerable patriots and other people in large and small towns and villages of south Korea-1,146 in Suwon, over 2,060 in Chungju, more than 600 in Kongju and Phyongthaek respectively, over 2,000 in Puyo and Chongju respectively, 8,644 in Taejon, over 4,000 in Jonju, more than 500 in Ansong, over 400 in Kunsan and Anyang respectively, 158 in Jochiwon and
197
more than 800 in Thongyong, to cite some examples.*
* "The Report of the Investigation Commission of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland on the Atrocities Committed by the US Armed Interventionists and Syngman Rhee Clique," No. 2, September 16, 1950. (Documents on the Atrocities of US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 38.)
Even according to a UP report, the number of inhabitants murdered in south Korea by the fleeing US imperialists and Syngman Rhee puppet clique ran into no less than one million.*
* UP, September 15, 1951.
The US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee puppet clique thus murdered south Korean people en masse while fleeing southward, but they could neither subdue the Korean people nor escape the fate of defeat.
The US aggressors, who were faced with the danger of being plunged into the sea off Pusan, made desperate efforts to hold on to the bridgehead of Pusan at all costs, instead of learning a due lesson from the defeat.
With a view to saving the 8th Army from imminent annihilation and besieging reversely the Korean People’s Army’s main force on the Raktong-gang line, the US imperialists carried out a large-scale landing operation at Inchon in the middle of September 1950 by mobilizing over 50,000 troops, more than 300 warships and other vessels and over 1,000 planes.
To cope with the obtaining military and political situations, President Kim II Sung, the ever-victorious, iron-willed brilliant commander and gifted military strategist, put forward a new strategic policy for preparing a new, decisive blow at the enemy and turning the war situation in our favour, and organized and directed the strategic retreat of the People’s Army. Thus the Korean war entered its second stage.
The US aggressors, again burning with the wild ambition of swallowing the whole of Korea at a gulp, perpetrated atrocities of mass murder which were beyond human imagination and unprecedented in world history in those areas which they had managed to occupy with the retreat of the People’s Army.
President Kim II Sung taught:
"Engels once called the British army the most brutal army. During World War II. the German fascist army outdid the British army in its savagery. The
198
human brain could not imagine more diabolical and horrible barbarities than those committed by the Hitlerite villains.
"But in Korea, the Yankees surpassed the Hitlerites by far."
In the Korean war the US imperialists, who had long been trained on misanthropy and racism, revealed their barbarity and brutality to the whole world far exceeding those of the preceding imperialists.
"Retake Seoul! There are girls and women. For three days the city will be yours. You will have girls and women in Seoul." This is the "special order" MacArthur, Commander of the "UN Forces", issued in September 1950 to US men and officers making a landing at Inchon.
As seen in this "special order" of MacArthur, the US imperialists did not hesitate in the least to throw off their masks of the so-called "civilization" and "humanism" and reveal their wolfish nature in order to retrieve themselves from their defeat in the Korean war.
In the wake of MacArthur. the commander of the 8th Army instigated his mercenary troops participating in the Korean war to the mass slaughter of the inhabitants in the areas under their temporary occupation. He said: "The soldiers of the UN Forces!... Don’t let your hands tremble even when those who appear before you are children or old people. Kill them! In doing so you will be saving yourselves from catastrophe and fulfilling your duty as the soldiers of the UN Forces."
The US murderous leaders, man haters and racists to the marrow, gave an order for human slaughter: "The Koreans are different from Americans. So, there should be no sympathy for them. Be merciless and merciless!" Acting upon this order, the US aggressors perpetrated genocidal atrocities from the moment they crossed the 38th parallel in early October 1950 and set their foot of aggression on the northern half of the Republic. Everywhere they set foot, not a single day passed without the cursed reports of their shooting Korean people.
At that time, the murder of Koreans was encouraged among the US soldiers as a "merit" worthy of commendation.
In his diary, Edward Lich, officer of the US 3rd Infantry Division, who fell in the Korean war, wrote:
"On the eve of Christmas our company killed 18 Korean communists.... The divisional commander promised to award a prize...."
This diary is only a fragmentary record of numerous atrocities which lays bare as it is the cannibalistic brutality and barbarity committed in Korea by the
199
US aggressors, the ringleader of modern imperialism, that inherited the brutal traditions of their Yankee ancestors who from the first days of their birth set up a country of robbers on a sea of blood shed by the American natives, established a "special fund" for the skins of the heads of Indians, encouraged their brutal murder with "prizes" and thus exterminated their race.
From such a racial point of view and in the Yankee way of doing things, the US aggressors carried out mass slaughter of Koreans during their temporary occupation of the areas of the northern half of the Republic.
Massacre of Korean people was committed, above all, by the US troops and, under the direction of the US army and the "CIC" (the counterintelligence corps), by the puppet gendarmerie and various reactionary terrorist organizations such as the "Peace Maintenance Corps", "Destroy-Communists Corps", "Police Force", "Skull and Crossbones Unit", "Young Men’s Association from the Northwest" and "Taehan Young Men’s Association", which were organized with pro-Japanese and pro-US elements, liquidated landlords, comprador capitalists, renegades and the like.
They perpetrated the largest-scale and most brutal slaughter of people ever known in human history in the temporarily occupied areas of the northern half of the Republic.
The atrocity of mass murder committed by the US aggressors in Sinchon County, Hwanghae Province, affords the most typical example of their innumerable murderous atrocities in the areas of the northern half of the Republic.
This massacre in Sinchon County, Hwanghae Province, was committed under the direct command of Lieut. Harrison, commander of the US occupa-tionist troops in the county.
The US aggressive army occupied the district of Sinchon on October 17, 1950. On the first date of their occupation, Harrison declared: "My orders are the law and he who ever violates them shall be shot unconditionally." He assembled the overthrown reactionary landlords, wicked religious men, usurers, scamps and other human scum and egged them on to murderous atrocities. And an unheard-of atrocious massacre took place in Sinchon, and the area was soon turned into a shambles of horrible human slaughter.
On October 18, the following day of their occupation of Sinchon, the aggressors locked up over 900 people including 300 children and women in the air-raid shelter of the Sinchon County Party Committee and burned them to death by setting fire to it after pouring gasoline over them. On the 19th and the 23rd they buried alive or burned to death as many as 650 people in the trenches
200
near the above-mentioned air-raid shelter. The number of people massacred during those three times, in the air-raid shelter and the trenches nearby it, reached more than 1,550.
On October 20, on the order of Harrison they herded more than 500 inhabitants including over 150 women and children into the air-raid shelter of the former Sinchon County Militia Station, blocked its entrance and blew it up with a pre-installed explosive to murder them all.
When all the air-raid shelters were filled with the corpses of people, the cutthroats worked out a new plan for massacre. On October 21, they drove five US army trucks with a full load of people to the Nambu Reservoir (present Sowon Reservoir) and threw them into it to be drowned to death. Between the latter part of October and the end of November they mercilessly murdered more than 1,600 people in the Nambu Reservoir and the Ryongmun Reservoir (present Sinchon Reservoir).
Around mid-November, to vent their anger on the inhabitants after losing a battle in a "punitive" operation against the Kuwolsan People’s Guerillas, the US aggressors arrested all the inhabitants of a village at the foot of the mountain and massacred over 500 people collectively at Minchon-ri on their way to Sinchon.
The desperation of the aggressors reached its zenith towards the end of November 1950, when they were compelled to flee from the northern half of the Republic in the face of the counteroffensive of the heroic Korean People’s Army.
On December 7, just before they were driven out of Sinchon, the US imperialists murdered several hundred women and children in a mass in the powder magazine in Wonam-ri, Sinchon Sub-County. Harrison, commander of the US troops occupying the area, appeared in front of the powder magazine.
Looking at the babies nestling at their mothers’ bosoms, he roared: "It is too happy for the mothers and babies to be together. Tear the babies off at once and lock them separately! Let the mothers die in their anxiety about their babies, and let the babies die while crying for their mothers!"
This was the order for a human butchery which fully revealed the cannibalistic nature of the US mercenary troops who had been thoroughly trained in fascist misanthropy by the US ruling circles and who rejoiced over manslaughter.
The US mercenary troops, on the order of Harrison, tore the babies away from the bosoms of their desperately resisting mothers and locked them up in
201
another warehouse. The hills and air of Sinchon reverberated with the babies’ cries for their mothers and the screams of the mothers calling their darlings. The US cutthroats gave gasoline to those innocent babies crying for water to burn their hearts to death. They starved and froze them to death. They threw rice straw over the heads of the mothers and children, poured gasoline over it and set fire to it. Not satisfied with this, they threw more than 100 hand grenades into the warehouse through the window to murder the detainees coldbloodedly. As a result, over 910 people including 400 mothers and 102 children were killed together in the two warehouses.*
* Immediately after Sinchon County was liberated from the temporary occupation of US imperialism, the person who took part in the exhumation of corpses in this "warehouse of death" told about the horrible scene of that time as follows: "Opening the door of the warehouse we first saw piles of children’s corpses right behind it, which evidenced their struggling to get out. There were many bodies of people who had been frozen, starved or burned to death. Nails of most of the children were missing and their fingertips were smeared with blood, a clear evidence of the desperate efforts they had made to get out of the place to the moment of their lives." (Documents on the Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea. Pyongyang, p. 94.)
The Sinchon Museum and the graves for 400 mothers and 102 children in Sinchon County, South Hwanghae Province can today be seen. They show the real facts of the thrice-cursed atrocities of mass murder committed by the US aggressors during the war.
In addition to mass murder of innocent people in Sinchon, the US aggressors killed numerous people individually. In this case, the methods of murder were so cruel to make even beasts turn away the sight.
On October 18, 1950, in Wolsan-ri, Chori Sub-County, Sinchon County, the US mercenaries killed a model peasant after dragging him round the village with his nose and ears run through with wire, his hands pierced through with bayonets and the letter of commendation nailed on his forehead, which he had been awarded as a model peasant.
These facts are nothing more than extremely fragmentary examples of the bestial atrocities of murder committed by US imperialism in Sinchon County.
The number of people murdered collectively and individually during the temporary occupation of Sinchon County by the US aggressors reached 35,383 or a quarter of the total population of the county. Among them, 16,234 were children, old people and women.
202
Eighty-seven per cent of the population of Mangung-ri, Kunghung Sub-County, Sinchon County, and 68 per cent of the population of Ryongdang-ri, Onchon Sub-County of the same county, were murdered mercilessly at the blood-stained hands of the US murderers. In Ryangjang-ri, Sinchon County, 100 per cent of the male inhabitants were slaughtered.
All this was the misery caused in a single county with a population of 142,788 (as of October 10, 1950), and the atrocity was committed in a little over one month of occupation by the US aggressor troops.
"I like to shoot straight at the face.... I feel a real sense of self-confidence when pointing my gun at the wounded looking up at me .... I come to know I am a matchless crack shot when the skull is broken to pieces, the eyeballs dropping out of the eyeholes, as a result of my correct aiming and shooting at the temple...." This is a US aggressor soldier’s "narrative of experiences" in the Korean war published in Daily Advocate. To the US cutthroats, human-slaughter was an amusement and a kind of hunting.
The tragic scene of human butchery took place not only in Sinchon County but also in all other places where the US mercenary army had set foot on.
On October 23, 1950, the US aggressor troops came to the Unryul Mine, ran a wire through the bellies of every ten of over 2,000 workers and their family members in the mine, threw them into the pits and covered them with ore to die there. They also murdered more than 300 inhabitants by cutting their bodies to pieces with a fodder-cutter. In November that year, the US aggressor troops who had landed on Jang Island in Rimpho Sub-County, Jongju County, North Phyongan Province, slaughtered all the population or more than 580 inhabitants of the island. In mid-November, in Pongmyong-ri, Sangjoyang Sub-County, Hamju County, South Hamgyong Province, the enemy arrested over 20 family members of Workers’ Party members, chopped them with an ax and burned their bodies. On November 23, at Haksong Sub-County, Haksong County, North Hamgyong Province, they dragged 28 people to a mountain, poured gasoline over them and burned them to death.
The blood-thirsty US aggressors committed such brutal atrocities of murder in many other large and small towns and villages under their occupation.
The following table shows part of the bestial atrocities of murder committed by the US aggressors in the areas under their temporary occupation.
203
STATISTICS ON MURDEROUS ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY
US IMPERIALISM IN SOME AREAS OF THE NORTHERN HALF
OF THE REPUBLIC DURING ITS
TEMPORARY OCCUPATION
Locality Number of the Murdered Locality Number of the Murdered
Pyongyang Over 15,000 Songrim Over 1 ,000
Sinchon 35,383 Sari won Over 950
Anak 19,072 Anju Over 5,000
Unryul Over 13,000 Kangso 1,561
Haeju Over 6,000 Nampho 1,511
Pyoksong 5,998 Kaechon 1,342
Songhwa 5,545 Sunchon Over 1,200
Onchon 5,131 Pake ho n Over 1,400
Thaethan 3,429 Sonchon Over 1,400
Phyongchon 3,040 Jongju Over 800
Yonan 2,450 Chosan Over 900
Jaeryong Over 1,400 Huichon Over 850
Jangyon 1,199 Yangyang Over 25,300
Ragyon 802 Cholwon Over 1,560
Phyongsan Over 5,290 Wonsan 630
Thosan 1,385 Hamju 648
Pongsan 1,293 Tanchon 532
The US aggressors killed these hundreds of thousands of innocent people by shooting, hanging, beating, and burying alive. Not only that. They resorted to the most horrible, brutal methods: they killed people after dragging them with their noses and ears run through with wire, scooping out their eyeballs and cutting off nipples, skinning off their heads and bodies, cutting off their lips and tongues, dismembering their limbs, cutting their bodies to pieces with saws, burning them to death on heaps of chopped firewood, boiling them in hot water, crucifying them and rolling tanks over them. The US homicides had no scruples even of committing such an atrocity as skinning the heads of patriots and taking them away as "souvenirs", following the examples of their Yankee ancestors.
These are the real facts of the so-called "police action" committed in the Korean war in the name of the "UN Forces" by the US aggressors who had
204
grown fat on the graves of the American Indians. They are the pride of soldiers of the "civilized country" in the fifties of the 20th century which advocates "democracy" and "humanism" and poses as their "defender".
The brutality and cruelty of the US aggressors gained great notoriety in the world as their hereditary traditions, and they reached their zenith during the Korean war.
As the US aggressor troops were taking to flight from their temporarily occupied areas when the heroic Korean People’s Army went over to counterof-fensive, Truman was very flurried. On November 30, 1950, he declared: "The use of any kinds of weapons including atomic bombs on Korea is under consideration." By this atomic blackmail policy he wanted to retrieve their defeat.
Acting upon the instruction of their master, the US aggressors in flight threatened many peaceful inhabitants with the "dropping of atomic bombs". They took them away and murdered them en masse on the way to commit diabolical atrocities.
On December 4 and 5, 1950, fleeing from Pyongyang, the US aggressors forced citizens, by threats, to cross the bridge over the Taedong River. When the people were in the middle of the bridge, they blew it up to kill more than 4,000 innocent people in cold blood. According to an eyewitness of the scene, on December 4 the Taedong River was covered with a mass of people and its water was dyed with the blood of the people killed by the explosion. In January 1951 when they were again driven out of Seoul, the US aggressors took over 30,000 patriots from Seoul prisons to the south on the pretext of "transfer" and killed more than 10,000 of them en masse on the way. Besides, they committed atrocities of mass murder in Yangyang of Kangwon Province and many other districts.
The brutal atrocities of murder perpetrated by the US aggressors in the areas under their temporary occupation and at the time of their southward flight were without precedent, as the Report of the Commission of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers says: "The evidence of mass murders, individual murders and bestialities committed by the military forces of the USA against Korean civilians including women and children is overwhelming both in quantity of the crimes committed and in the variety of methods employed."*
* "Report of the Commission of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers on US Crimes in Korea." (March 31,1952.) (Documents on the Atrocities of the US Aggres-
205
sors in Korea , Pyongyang, p. 369.)
The report of the Investigation Commission of the International Democratic Women’s Federation dated May 28, 1951, says: "In the areas under the temporary occupation of the US and Syngman Rhee troops, hundreds of thousands of peaceful inhabitants, together with their families, were tortured, burned to death and buried alive, irrespective of the old and young. Thousands of other people were dying with cold and hunger in narrow prisons without any reason, trial and sentence.
"These mass tortures and mass murders...surpass the crimes committed by Hitler Nazis in temporarily occupied Europe."*
*Jbid., p. 357.
During the Korean war the United States also committed dreadful atrocities against the Republic’s POWs.
In flagrant violation of the international agreement on the POWs, the United States murdered the Republic’s POWs by medieval methods. It even slaughtered them, using them as objects of experiment for bacteriological weapons and chemical warfare, as targets of ball firing and objects of the efficiency test of arms.
The bestial atrocities of murder committed by the US army against the Republic’s POWs at the camps in the islands of Koje, Jeju and Pongam have already been widely known to the world.
On June 15, 1951, at Compound No. 62 in Koje Island more than one hundred POWs were killed in cold blood as targets of the machine-gun ball firing of the US troops, and 80 per cent of the entire POWs were used as objects for bacteriological weapon tests and their lives were threatened with various germ-diseases. As the Egyptian paper Al Jumhuria Vyisuri laid bare, over 1,400 POWs from camps in different places in south Korea were taken to the Pacific and killed en masse as objects of A-bomb tests of the United States.
In particular, in order to break up the armistice negotiations, the US imperialists tried hard to enforce their nonsensical claim for the so-called "voluntary repatriation" of POWs which they had fabricated for the purpose. They perpetrated unprecedented bestial atrocities against the Republic’s POWs. The murderous atrocities committed by US imperialism at the camp in Koje Island in February and May 1952 are one of such examples.*
206
*The appeal signed by more than 6,200 of the Republic’s POWs in the Kojedo Camp on May 23, 1952, reads in part: "On May 19. 1952, in POW Compound No. 66, the American devils ... falsely announced that all the POWs willing to return to north Korea should assemble before their own barracks by 7 p.m. ready to embark.... While we were getting into line, American soldiers opened fire with machine guns and flamethrowers and used even tanks, killing 127 of our comrades and wounding many more. On two successive days. May 20 and 21, in the four divisions of our camp, more than 1,000 of our comrades were summoned to the offices of the American military police and the POW Camp Commandant to be subjected to the so-called ‘voluntary repatriation’ questionings. 422 of our comrades have not returned till now, while more than 100 returned bleeding all over with fractured arms and dagger wounds in their breasts, with their backs, wrists and breasts branded with disgraceful characters.... There is no limit to the brutality of the American murderers.... They ... have beaten us with iron rods and leather whips. They have kicked us and set their fierce dogs on us. In steam chambers they have suffocated our comrades to death. They have strangled them and quartered them. The cannibals in American military uniforms are using our patriots barbarously in the bacteriological, chemical and atomic weapon tests." (Korean Central Yearbook, 1953, Pyongyang, p. 174.)
As this account of POWs smuggled out of the Kojedo POW Camp tells, the US troops perpetrated brutal massacre beyond human imagination: they shot gas shells and machine guns to murder en masse those empty-handed pris-oners-of-war who refused to obey their demand to reject the repatriation to the Republic, buried them alive, burned, starved and froze them to death, or set dogs on them to tear them to death. They exhausted every means of atrocity against the women prisoners of war before killing them.
Due to such bestial atrocities of murder committed by the US imperialists, during the war a large number of Republic’s POWs were mercilessly slaughtered. Many were wounded or maimed for life.
No period throughout human history, in all ages and countries, be it a period of the worse despotic rule or a period of darkness overridden by fascist • hangmen, and no bloody war of aggression, has ever seen such a record of barbarities that could surpass, in brutality and bestiality, the atrocities of murder committed by the US murderers in the Korean war.
Such was the very showcase of "democracy" and "humanism" of the United States which poses as a "civilized nation" of the 20th century and such was part of the cold-blooded murder committed by the advocates of "peace". In the Korean war the United States fully revealed to the whole world its true
207
colour as a "civilized nation".
The US imperialists had dreamed of bringing the Korean people to their knees by means of horrible bestial atrocities, but could never subjugate the Korean people who were determined to defend the freedom and happiness of their fatherland at the cost of their lives. On the contrary, the murderous atrocities they had committed in Korea stirred up the Korean people’s national resentment and strong feeling of hostility all the more. The Korean people fought with increasing persistency in order to avenge the massacre of their parents, brothers and sisters on the US aggressors, to wreak vengeance upon the enemy a thousand and one times.
2) US Imperialism’s "Scorched-Earth" and "Strangulation” Operations
"Scorched-Earth" Operations
Battered on the Korean front by the heroic People’s Army, the US imperialists now clung to the brutal "scorched-earth" operation, massacring the innocent Korean people and wantonly destroying peaceable establishments, with a view to retrieving themselves from their defeat on the front.
At the "MacArthur Hearings", O’Donnel, Commander of the US Air Force in the Far East, said that their object in the early days of the war was "to reduce all north Korean cities to ashes first to give the Korean people a shock terrible enough for them to tremble".* What the US aggressors were after in the "scorched-earth" operation was to frighten the Korean people and bring them to their knees by reducing Korea to ashes, be it a peaceable inhabited area or an industrial zone, and slaughtering the Korean people at random without distinction of age or sex.
*The Records of MacArthur Hearings.
From the outset of the Korean war the "scorched-earth" operation of the US aggressor army assumed the most brutal nature ever known in the world history of war. At first the military bigwigs in Washington played false with
208
the world people, insisting that the operational zone of their flying corps was confined to the area south of the 38th parallel and their mission was to "protect the US refugees" and “transport the operational goods”. A few days later they had to announce that the operational zone was extended to every area and every military target north of the 38th parallel. But the US Fifth Air Force, upon MacArthur’s orders, virtually went into bombing action from the very beginning of the war, drawing no distinction between peaceable inhabited areas and military targets.
Mobilized in this "scorched-earth" operation of the US aggressors were the bombers including B-29, pursuit, jet and other up-to-date planes. And the US Seventh Fleet charged with the mission of "blockading the coastal area of Korea" worked together.
From the first days of their action on the Korean front the US army planes and warships bombed, bombarded and strafed the peaceable towns and rural and fishing villages, everywhere the Koreans lived, killing them en masse, and burning and destroying everything-dwelling houses, schools, hospitals and cultural establishments such as theatres and cinema houses as well as factories, mines and other industrial establishments. Thus, Korea was reduced to ashes.*
*Here are some examples of the indiscriminate bombings committed by the US army in the early period of the Korean war.
On June 29 and on July 3, 4, 5, 20, 21, 23 and 28 scores of US bombers and fighters, including B-29s, bombed Pyongyang indiscriminately. As a result, thousands of peaceable inhabitants were killed mercilessly, and 1,000-odd dwelling houses were destroyed or burnt down, besides the hospital attached to the cornstarch factory, the hospital of the Ministry of Transport, People’s Hospital No. 1 in West Pyongyang, the Polytechnical Institute, three churches in Ryonhwa-ri, Pakgu-ri and Ryusong-ri, a textile factory, a socks mill, a soy sauce factory and the railway factory.
From the 2nd to the 27th of July 128 US bombers and fighters made attacks on Wonsan on 12 occasions and dropped 712 bombs, each weighing 0.5 to 1 ton, to destroy 4,028 dwellings and kill 1,647 peaceable inhabitants. Among them 739 were women and 325 children.
Between July 3 and August 3 some 20 US bombers and fighters flew into the Hungnam area of South Hamgyong Province on eight occasions and dropped 2,000 bombs, destroying or burning down 1,811 dwellings and killing many residents. Besides, the US air pirates wrought havoc with many schools such as a chemical college and primary schools No. 3 and No. 7, the Haebang Theatre, a library, a general hospital, a T.B. hospital, an iso-
209
lation hospital and many other cultural and medical establishments, the Pongung Carbide Factory, a fertilizer factory, a pharmaceutical factory, a smeltery and other industrial establishments.
On July 3, 4. 6 and 8 scores of US bombers and fighters bombed Nampho indiscriminately. On the rainy 6th and 8th in particular, the US air pirates showered bombs over its residential quarters, taking advantage of the downpour. Eleven ri out of the 14 in Nampho suffered damage from that bombing. More than 400 people met a miserable death and 558 dwelling houses were destroyed or burnt down. Their embers blazed and smoked for over a week.
On July 3 two US cruisers and one destroyer intruded into the sea just 500 metres from Jumunjin and bombarded defenseless residential quarters. As a result. 164 dwelling houses in the Jumunjin area were blown up and 4,122 people of some 1,000 families suffered from the calamity.
On July 16 more than 50 B-29s bombed Seoul indiscriminately for over one hour, killing 1,096 people and heavily injuring 743 in the Ryongsan district alone and destroying or burning up 1.520 dwellings, 14 hospitals and 2 schools.
On July 18, 20, 21, 28, 29 and August 5, altogether 13 US warships intruded six times into the sea off Yangyang. Kangwon Province, and fired 514 shells, reducing numerous dwelling houses to ashes and damaging a vast stretch of farmland.
On July 22 ten US bombers bombed Ranam haphazardly. Consequently, 506 dwelling houses were destroyed or burnt up. (Documents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang. The Annals of Korean Hostilities, Seoul.)
Around September 1950, three months after the outbreak of the war, the US Air Force Command in the Far East announced that the number of the industrial targets for bombing "became lesser"*] with the fulfilment of the first-term plan for bombing industrial establishments. O’Donnel, Commander of the US Air Force in the Far East, said at the "MacArthur Hearings" that already in the early days of the Korean war, "the Korean peninsula had been so completely ravaged in a jumble" by the bombings of the US Air Force "no town worth mentioning had remained undamaged".*2 This bespeaks how extensive and barbarous their "scorched-earth" operation was from the outset of the war.
*1.1. F. Stone, The Hidden History of the Korean War, Vol. II. Tokyo, pp. 113-14.
*2. The Records of MacArthur Hearings.
The brutal nature of the "scorched-earth" operation conducted by the US Air Force can be
210
seen from the following answer O’Donnel gave at the "MacArthur Hearings1’ to the question of Stennis, Senator from the Mississippi State:
"...Almost the whole of the Korean peninsula is in an awfully tragic state. Everything is being destroyed. Nothing worth mentioning remains intact. ... We had been free from our flying mission until the Chinese army came. For there had already been no target left in Korea." (The Records of MacArthur Hearings.)
The repeated defeat of the US aggressors on the front redoubled their cruelty and brutality in the thrice-cursed "scorched-earth" operation; they stepped it up on a bigger scale.
Mac Arthur’s calculation was to land a huge armed force in Inchon in September 1950 and occupy the whole of Korea in a short time. That was a great mistake. Although the US imperialists, taking advantage of their absolute numerical superiority, could force their way through the People’s Army positions in the Raktong River line and the Inchon-Seoul line and then intrude into the area north of the 38th parallel, they were unable to occupy it completely.
The Korean people and the People’s Army heroically surmounted the hard trial of the strategic retreat through their devoted struggle and went over to the overall counteroffensive from late October 1950, frustrating the enemy’s plan to reach the Amnok River by a "win-the-war-quick operation" and cutting the comb of MacArthur who had blared: "The war is just about to end."
The main force of the enemy was utterly crushed at the regions around the Chongchon River and Jangjin Lake by the large-scale encircling operation of the People’s Army, and there started the so-called "December general retreat of the UN Forces".
The worsted enemy was whipped into a new frenzy.
Awe-stricken MacArthur made a splash about "retaliation" and insisted on extending the aggressive war to the continent. On November 30 Truman issued a statement to the effect that the "use of any type of weapons including A-bombs in Korea was under consideration". On December 16 he was despicable enough to proclaim a "state of emergency" in the United States.
However, neither nuclear blackmail of the US ruling circles nor the "state of emergency" could tip the war in their favour. The "UN Forces" and the Syn-gman Rhee puppet army were completely driven out of the region of the northern half of the Republic by December 24, 1950.
In the half-a-year-long war the US aggressors suffered huge losses militarily plus a serious politico-moral defeat. The myth about the "mightiness" of
211
US imperialism was shattered to pieces and its "prestige" fell to the ground.
Given an irrecoverable heavy blow on the Korean front, the US aggressors stuck ever harder to their "scorched-earth" operations.
Fleeing from Seoul in early January 1951 in face of the counterattack of the People’s Army, the US army wantonly destroyed or burnt down the major buildings of that city out of so-called "military operational needs". At that time the New York Times reported that the MacArthur unit organizationally burnt down or destroyed Seoul under the "’scorched-earth’ policy of the UN Command" which had "ordered not to leave any establishment serviceable to the enemy behind".* This brutal act was thus conducted according to MacArthur’s plan of "scorched-earth" operation, mapped out upon the orders of Washing-
ton.
*New York Times, January 4, 1951.
Upon fleeing from Seoul in January 1951 the air pirates of US imperialism dropped 500,000 gallons of gasoline and petroleum and 23,000 gallons of napalm over Kimpho, reducing the Kimpho aerodrome and its surroundings into a barren land in a flash. In the latter half of January they sprayed 8,000 gallons of napalm over wide areas with 26 villages northwest of Suwon. The two-legged beasts fired 247,000 heavy machine gun bullets into the sea of flames.*
*David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 307.
The "scorched-earth" operation of burning and destroying every town and village conducted by the US air force while its reeling back ground force defied human imagination in bestiality.
The Korean people and the beautiful land of 3,000 ri meant nothing to them. They were keen only to taking every life and blowing away everything to attain their ambition in the war. In this sense their "scorched-earth" operation might have served for their "Korea obliteration policy" exposed by Mun Hak Bong or for their "murder operation" confessed by Bradley.
I.F. Stone, author of The Hidden History of the Korean War, wrote: "In Korea not only the industrial potential of her cities but every insignificant property in her remote villages have been ravaged." Under the title "Allied Forces in Wonju" the London Times reported on January 15: The "scorched-
212
earth" operation reduced 22 villages to ashes and set fire to 300 hay stacks. It should have been hailed as a heroic deed had it been a scorched-earth operation conducted by the people for their fatherland in the brave defensive warfare.... But their behavior is simply ghastly.*! And a correspondent of the New York Times reported from Taegu: "Koreans find their houses and schools remain as they are in the wake of the evacuation of the communist troops. In contrast, the UN Forces fighting with the weapons of far greater destructive power know but to reduce a town to a cinder. Communists win morally even in evacuation."5^
The words "ghastly behaviour" and "moral defeat by communists", of course, fail to condemn all that was done by the monstrous "scorched-earth" operation of the US army. Yet these fragmentary reports might serve as evidence telling the world how shamefully the US troops were behaving in Korea.
*1.I.F. Stone, The Hidden History of the Korean War, Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 113. *2. New York Times, February 21, 1951.
"Strangulation" Operations
With the change of the situation at the front in the latter half of 1951 the US air pirates committed atrocities now under the "strangulation" operations to massacre the innocent people and destroy every peaceable establishment in Korea.
In June 1951 the front was frozen around the 38th parallel. Having lost a large number of their men and a huge amount of combat materiel in their successive defeats in the military adventure, the US imperialists could not but squat down on the very line from which they had launched an aggressive war.
When the front came to freeze, US imperialism, while mustering its forces in an attempt to make up for its defeat, watched for a chance to break through the front and land from the East and West seas, greatly reinforcing its flying corps and fire power.
But that was a pipe dream.
In accordance with the strategic line set forth by the great revolutionary leader and Supreme Commander Comrade Kim II Sung, the People’s Army units began to build strong tunnel positions along the foremost line and on the east and west coasts from mid-June, converting them into an impregnable
213
fortress. They launched positive military activities to frustrate the enemy’s offensives at every step.
The US aggressors were bewildered at the string of their defeats. Caught in such a dilemma, the US rulers racked their brains for a loophole. Finally, in June 1951 they found themselves compelled to propose ceasefire negotiations to the side of the Korean People’s Army.
On July 10, 1951 ceasefire negotiations started at Phanmunjom near Kaesong. But the crafty US imperialists, still pursuing their nefarious aggressive designs behind the curtain of the negotiations, tried to get out of the ever-worsening politico-military predicament and tone down the world’s voice raised against their aggression on Korea by disguising themselves as wishers for ceasefire and peace. Meanwhile, the US imperialists plotted to attain at the truce negotiations what they had failed to attain at the front and prepare a fresh offensive reinforcing their forces behind the scene of the negotiations.
Against such a politico-military background their so-called "strangulation" operations came out, a cruel war operation designed to get an advantage at the table of negotiations by changing the situation on the front even a bit in their favour.
According to the US News and World Report dated November 30, 1951 their "strangulation" operations were to "strangle" the People’s Army on the front by cutting the line of north Korea’s logistics and reinforcements to the front near the 38th parallel. But their aim was not confined to this. They attempted to massacre the Korean people through that "strangulation" operations. When the US imperialists came out with the "strangling" operations the bigwigs of the US Department of Defence described Korea as a test ground for the most effective use of their military force and arms and drove their men into a hecatomb in Korea, urging them to "kill as many people as possible".*! The monstrous aim of this operation was also clearly revealed by Bradley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he said: "The goal in Korea is to produce the maximum casualties."*2
*1. Hershel D. Meyer, The Modem History of the United States, Kyoto, pp. 180-81. *2.//>iW.,p. 181.
The US aggressors tried every available means to attain their aggressive purpose. Their frenzy capped the climax.
Upon the orders from the Department of Defence, "Kill as many Koreans
214
as possible", the US air pirates went into the "strangulation" operations. They bombed heavily everything, military or nonmilitary. They destroyed even rural lanes and stone and wooden bridges to cut off every line of transport.
Oxen yoked to ploughs or carts were air-strafed too.
Even the peaceful residential quarters, though "completely ravaged in a jumble" as they themselves had worded, became important targets of the "strangulation" operations. Pyongyang was the first target.
Between July 11, 1951, the day after the opening of the ceasefire negotiations and August 20, total of more than 10,000 US military planes including B-29s dropped 4,000 incendiary, time and other bombs plus gasoline tanks over Pyongyang on more than 250 occasions. As a result, 4,000 innocent inhabitants were killed and more than 2,500 heavily wounded. Most of the cultural establishments including the Pyongyang Moranbong Theatre and priceless historic relics such as Yongmyong Temple and Pubyok Pavilion were destroyed or burnt down.*!
In their "strangulation" operations conducted behind the curtain of armistice negotiations, the US air pirates carried out carpet bombings and wanton strafings all over north Korea.
In the rainy season between July and August 10. 1951, 18,685 American planes including 7,808 bombers made 3,200 rounds of bombings and strafings in the area of Hwanghae Province. As a result, 4,458 dwelling houses were destroyed and burned and 6,894 peaceful inhabitants including 625 children were killed.*2
Besides, they dropped napalm bombs, mine bombs, explosive bombs, time bombs and gasoline tanks day and night over Nampho, Rajin, Chongjin, Hamhung, Wonsan, Sinuiju and all the other towns and areas of north Korea including remote mountain areas to massacre peaceful inhabitants and demolish and burn indiscriminately dugouts, and other dwellings of the inhabitants and schools, hospitals and other establishments.
* 1. & 2. "Report of the Investigation Commission of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland on the Atrocities Committed by the US Armed Interventionists and Syngman Rhee Clique," No. 5 (Documents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, pp. 53-54).
In 1952, Clark, Commander of the US Far East Army Forces, made public the so-called "strike plan" and threw the air force under his command into the
215
larger-scale "strangulation" operations with a view to "leaving nothing to be sweet in north Korea". He prattled that "87 cities of north Korea would be
wiped off the map".
Following the announcement of Clark’s "strike plan", US bombers and fighters showered napalm, mine and other bombs numbering 52,380 over Pyongyang and its neighbourhood.* Considering that at that time Pyongyang occupied no more than 52 square kilometres, it meant they dropped one thousand bombs for every square kilometre. The brutal "strangulation" operations by the US air pirates were launched against all the areas of north Korea, though different in degrees. With a view to "strangling" the front and the rear, in 1952 alone the US air pirates dropped more than 15 million napalm bombs over north Korea and, besides, they exhausted over 500 million machine-gun bullets and 400,000 rocket shells.
* "Report of the Investigation Commission of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland on the Atrocities Committed by the US Armed Interventionists and Syn-gman Rhee Clique," No. 5 (Documents on Airocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 57.)
But the US aggressors could not frighten the Korean people with any amount of mass-destruction weapons and barbarous means or retrieve themselves from their successive defeats at the front. President Kim II Sung said;
"Under the guidance of our Party, our people, full of ardent love for their country and with an unshakable determination to safeguard the people’s democratic system with their blood, have been fighting at the risk of their lives to drive the US imperialist army of aggression from the soil of their country as soon as possible. They displayed unrivalled heroism and an indomitable fighting spirit," (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 7, p. 335.)
Our heroic People’s Army and people who, under the wise guidance of President Kim II Sung, had risen to rout the enemy with a passionate determination to stoutly defend the freedom and independence of the fatherland displayed mass heroism and unrivalled devotion at the front and in the rear.
As a result, the enemy’s "summer and autumn offensives" in 1951 together with the "strangulation" operations were completely frustrated by the heroic People’s Army and the enemy’s frantic attacks on the People’s Army positions and the coastal areas in 1952 were repulsed every time.
216
In his speech delivered at the California assembly halJ in Los Angeles at the close of 1951 the Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, Vandenburg, admitted the failure of their "strangulation" operations: he said that "every day our F-84 planes made sallies over the enemy’s main supply line to blow up railways and demolish bridges and check the movement during daytime",* "but the well-knit round-the-clock supply blockade plan, too, failed to achieve the aim of ‘strangulation’".
*US News and World Report. December 14, 1951.
Driven mad by the failure of their "strangulation" operations, the US air pirates had no scruples in bombing power stations and reservoirs related to the people’s livelihood.
On June 23 and 24, 1952, the enemy carried out a large-scale bombing on the Suphung Power Station on the northern border of our country, mobilizing a total of 500 bombers and fighters. As UP commented on this event as the "beginning of a new tough policy in the two-year-long Korean war",* the bombing of the Suphung Power Station by the US planes meant that with their "scorched-earth" and "strangulation" operations ending in fiasco, the US imperialists were now making their last yet fruitless efforts in Korea.
*David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Vol. II, Tokyo, p. 417.
Following the bombing of the Suphung Power Station, the US air pirates bombed over ten power stations including Jangjingang, Pujongang and Hochongang Power Stations, totally destroying their dams and generating facilities.* The indiscriminate bombing of power stations was obvious proof of the fact that the US imperialists had admitted their inability to hold out in the Korean war. It also revealed their vicious scheme to deprive the Korean people of everything, even light.
*Supervisors Office for Information and Education of the Air Force Headquarters, History of Air Force, Vol. I, Seoul, p. 168.
In 1953, with the armistice near at hand, the US air pirates undertook more vicious bombings against non-military objectives. Beginning from the middle of May, 1953, US planes bombed and destroyed the Sogam Reservoir
217
in Sunan County, the Jamo Reservoir in Sunchon County and many other reservoirs in north Korea to kill several thousand peasants and plunge many villages and farm land under water to be devastated. This was a beastly atrocity-Such barbarous bombings made by the US air pirates against power stations and reservoirs showed that their desperation had reached the extreme as their attempt to occupy the whole of Korea proved abortive.
During the three years and one month of the Korean war the US aggressors dropped on the narrow area of north Korea as much tonnage of bombs as they had dropped on many Pacific countries during the three years and eight months of the Pacific War. It far exceeded the number dropped on Germany during World War IT. Besides, they fired 221,563,000 rockets and other projectiles at the Korean people. And US warships shot 438,000 tons of shells and four million bullets.*! The brass hats of the US Department of Defence, too, said: "We are using the maximum of most concentrated gunfire on the Korean front". *2
However, US imperialism could not bring the heroic Korean people to their knees with neither "scorched-earth" nor "strangulation" operations as they rose up for the freedom and independence of the fatherland or exert any influence on the whole course of the war. In July 1953 prior to the armistice American military commentator Baldwin wrote in his book Lessons of the Korean War as follows:
"Air and naval forces destroyed nearly all the bridges in north Korea again and again, cut railway lines at thousands of points and demolished roads repeatedly. But in spite of the nearly complete air and sea supremacy the enemy’s supply lines were not cut off in fact.... Today the enemy is rather far stronger on the ground than at the beginning of the ‘strangulation’ operations. During June, communists shot 1,500,000 gun and mortar shells, which is two times as much as the peak in the preceding months. They proved the ability of uninterrupted concentration fire which the air force did not believe to be feasible. Thus, communists displayed their unrivalled ability of adjusting their tac- ;• tics, their supply system in particular, in the face of the air and sea supremacy of the Allied.... In the face of the air strike of the Allied Army, the combat power of their ground force and their ability in offensive operations, in fact, have increased, far from decreasing."*3
What Baldwin said testified to the fact that the "scorched-earth" and "strangulation" operations on which the American ruling circles pinned high
218
hope proved powerless before the heroic Korean people and People’s Army and could not save the enemy from the doom of defeat.
As the New York Herald Tribune commented, "The stark irrefutable fact of the Korean war is that well-trained American army with powerful support of the air and naval forces met with defeat at the hands of the enemy."*4 What the American imperialist aggressors gained in the "scorched-earth" and "strangulation" operations was only bitter defeat.
*I,2&4. Hershel D. Meyer, The Modern History of the United States, Kyoto, p. 416. *3. New York Times, July 2, 1953.
3) US Imperialism’s Germ Warfare
In the Korean war the US imperialists employed various inhuman tactics such as "murder", "scorched-earth" and "strangulation" operations, but they could not bring the Korean people to their knees, nor escape the doom of defeat nor save the shattered prestige of the United States of America. In a desperate attempt to patch up the exploded myth of their "mightiness", the US ruling circles now recklessly resorted to the strength of germs to exterminate the Korean people and break through the fixed front. The dear leader Comrade Kim Jong II said:
"The US imperialists mobilized for the Korean war their vast army, navy and air force armed with modern weapons and the latest equipment as well as the armies of their 15 satellites, and conducted the most cruel and brutal warfare." (Kim Jong II, Let Us All Live and Struggle like Heroes, Eng. ed., p. 5.)
The facts of crimes committed by the US aggressors in the Korean war, using bacterial and chemical weapons in a "practical warfare" as "ideal weapons for containment", were disclosed by the statements of the US air force officers captured by the People’s Army in the act of germ warfare and were confirmed by the "investigation reports" of various international investigation commissions and other material evidences.
Employing microbe weapons as the main means of "mass destruction operations", the US ruling circles foolishly dreamed to easily attain the strategical goal which they had failed to carry out through the "scorched-earth" and
219
‘strangulation" operations of their air force.*
*The use of bacterial and chemical weapons was strictly banned by the law of nations as the most barbarous, inhuman mass-destruction weapons.
However, the US aggressors strenuously insisted on the use of bacterial and chemical weapons from before the Korean war.
On June 15, 1946, Orden White, head of the germ warfare branch of the US aggressor army, prattled: "I believe germ warfare, as a practical form of warfare, is quite within the bounds of possibility" (Hershel D. Meyer, The Modern History of the United States, Kyoto, p. 248.) In 1949, Truman refused the discussion in Congress of the Geneva Protocol outlawing germ warfare. The US imperialists took over the Japanese "731st Unit" and other germ warfare research institutions. They employed Ishii Shiro and other Japanese germ warfare criminals as well as those germ warfare criminals including Schreiber who served with the germ warfare command of fascist Hitler. They conducted experiments and researches on germ warfare in top secret in Japan and in the "Research and Development Command" in Baltimore, Maryland, and in the Detrik bacteriological research centre in Frederick, the US mainland.
About the objective of germ warfare the US imperialists pursued in the Korean war, the US air force prisoners said in the following vein: It was, above all, intended to "influence" the armistice negotiations by this plan (germ warfare plan) and thus bring about a satisfactory "result", and specifically, "cause lack of manpower for the front units and the rear through spreading of epidemics, which would surely shake the morale of the people to the extreme to get them to give up the ground for operations" and "outlive the failure in the ‘strangulation’ operations of the air force".*
*Docutnents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in
Korea, Pyongyang, p. 107.
To summarize their testimonies, it may be said that in waging the germ warfare the United States wanted to "wipe out" more effectives and retrieve itself from the ignominious defeat in the "strangulation" operations in the Korean war by employing bacterial weapons as "ideal weapons for containment" that do not invite the "attention" of the world public.
To this end, the US drew up a plan for criminal germ warfare. The plan was prepared officially by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in the autumn of 1950. According to it, germ warfare was to be waged in two stages-the stage of
220
experimental development and that of regular operations. In the first stage targets for the effective dropping of germ bombs would be chosen and the methods of dropping and the tactics of germ warfare developed. In the next stage areas to be contaminated would be defined and concentrated bombings carried
out.
According to what deputy chief of the executive office for the US Secretary of the Air Force Til told to US Flight Colonel Walker M. Mafurin, in the autumn of 1950 Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force Vandenburg, Chief of Staff of the United States Army Collins, Chief of Naval Operations Sherman and other war-mongers huddled in conference and decided to develop the bacterial weapons, which had proved to be effective, and employ them in the Korean war at the "experimental development stage".*
*/bid..p. 105.
Under the bacteriological operational plan of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the US aggressors produced germ bombs in considerable quantities first in Camp Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, which was the bacteriological research centre. Then they applied them to the Republic’s prisoners of war to test their effectiveness.
As is widely known, the US army’s butcher boat No. 1,091 built for germ warfare was anchoring off Wonsan in March 1951 while putting the germ weapons to the test against our POWs. Afterwards, it committed similar bloodcurdling atrocities on our POWs in the camps on Koje and other islands.
Even according to a UP report, the US imperialists took matters needed for germ culture out of the bodies of prisoners of war and conducted 3,000 experiments in the laboratory of the boat, infecting 1,400 with serious diseases and 80 per cent of the rest with other diseases.*
* UP, May 18, 1951.
On the basis of the experiment results on the germ bomb effectiveness made on the prisoners, in October 1951 the US Joint Chiefs of Staff gave out a directive for the start of regular germ warfare in Korea and its gradual promotion from the experimental stage to regular operations.
According to the testimony of Colonel Frank H. Schewable, Chief of Staff
221
of the First Wing of the US Marine Corps, who was captured by the DPRK side as his plane was shot down on July 8, 1952, "the general plan for the bacteriological warfare in Korea was directed by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in October 1951". Then the Joint Chiefs of Staff "gave an order" to Ridgway, Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Command, "to detail persons for the purpose and begin germ warfare in Korea to be gradually escalated from the initial small-scale test stage". This order was conveyed by Ridgway to Wayland, Commander of the US Far East Air Force in Tokyo, Japan. To execute the order, he summoned Everest, Commander of the US Fifth Air Force in Korea, and the Commander of the 19th Bomber Wing on Is. Okinawa which was under the command of the US Far East Air Force for conference respectively and gave them the directive to extend the criminal atrocity of germ warfare to operational action.*
* "Testimony Given by Frank H. Schewable, Colonel of the US Marine Corps, on December 6, 1952" (Documents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, pp.
130-31).
According to the directive given by Wayland, Commander of the Far East Air Force, the Headquarters of the US Fifth Air Force gave orders to the wings under its command to make sure that their squadrons drop germ bombs ten times on a monthly average over designated areas beginning with January 10, 1952, in the experimental stage of the germ warfare. Concerning this Colonel Mafurin of the US Air Force stated: "Beginning with January 10, 1952, we received from the Headquarters of the Fifth Air Force regular directions as to performing germ-dropping missions. While serving with the 51st Wing we were ordered for ten germ-dropping missions on a monthly average, and two or three of them were carried out north of the Amnok River. After performing all these germ-warfare missions, airmen notified the intelligence service where germ containers had been dropped, and the information was conveyed to the Headquarters of the Fifth Air Force."*
* "Testimony Given by Colonel Walker M. Mafurin of the US Air Force on May 10, 1953" (Ibid., pp. 228-29.)
In the first stage of the germ warfare, the US aggressors attempted the following experiments: the spread and infectiousness of diseases, efficiency of various types of germ weapons and containers, their adaptability to various types of
222
planes in transport, their effectiveness in diverse natural features and terrains (mountainous areas, fields, highlands, isolated and connected areas, towns and countryside and others), their reaction on seasonal temperature, and the effectiveness in the coldest and warmest seasons. At the same time, the experiments were designed to develop the method of dropping and the tactics of germ warfare.*
* "Testimony Given by Frank H.Schewable, Colonel of the US Marine Corps, on December 6, \952"(Ibid.,pp. 131-32).
The first stage flights started in November 1951. The germ bombs were
dropped in the night by B-29s over the northeast and northwest areas of Korea.
Between January and March 1952 alone, for example, germ bombs were
dropped concentrically on the areas of Inchon, Cholwon, Phyonggang, Kumh-wa and the regions east of the Pukhan River in Kangwon Province; the areas of Sohung, Jaeryong, Hwangju and Suan in Hwanghae Province; Pyongyang City; the areas of Taedong, Junghwa and Phyongwon, the areas of Anju and Kaechon and the areas of Kangdong, Sunchon and Yangdok in South Phyon-gan Province; Pakchon in North Phyongan Province; and others. Besides, germ and gas shells were showered by fire arms over the front areas.
The germ bombs dropped by the US aggressors contained to their utmost limits flies, fleas, spiders, bedbugs, mosquitoes, lice, beetles, grasshoppers and other noxious insects infected with vicious epidemic bacilli such as cholera, pest and typhus.*
* According to the "Report of the Commission of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers on US Crimes in Korea" made public on March 31, 1952, different kinds of insects were found in 169 areas of north Korea. The following table shows the kinds of insects infected with epidemic bacilli as confirmed in the 15 typical localities:
No.Date (1952) Localities Insects
1 Jan.28 Phyongfang County, Kangwon Province Flies, fleas And spoders
2 Feb. 11 Cholwon County, Kangwon Province Flies, fleas And mosquitoes
3 Feb. 17 Phyongwon County, Kangwon Province Spiders
4 Feb. 18 Anju County, S. Phyongan Province Flies and fleas
5 Feb. 23 Phyongwon County, S. Phyongan Province Flies
6 Feb. 25 Munchon County, Kangwon Province Spiders and other insects
7 Feb. 26 Taedong County, S. Phyongan Province Flies and spiders
8 Feb. 27 Kangdong County, S. Phyongan Province Flies
9 Feb. 27 Hwanghae Province (military unit) Lice
10 Feb. 27 Sunchon County, S. Phyongan Province Flies
11 Feb. 29 Suan County, Hwanghae Province Flies and other insects
12 Mar. 1 Cholsan County, N. Phyongan Province Flies and fleas
13 Mar. 1 Yangdok County, S. Phyongan Province Flies and other insects
14 Mar. 2 Kowon County, S. Hamgyong Province Fleas and other insects
15 Mar. 4 Central District, Pyongyang Flies
"Report of the Commission of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers on US Crimes in Korea" dated March 31, 1952 (Ibid., p. 363).
There broke out cases of pest and typhus never known before, to take a toll of precious lives of people, in the places which were made victims of the US atrocity of germ warfare.
* "Report of the International Scientific Investigation Commission on Atrocities of Germ Warfare Committed by the US Imperialists in Korea" dated August 31, 1952 says in part: "The Korean and Chinese people are made the very targets of bacterial weapons. "The bacterial weapons were employed by US units by different methods. Some of them seem to be the improved ones of the kinds employed by Japanese troops in World War II....
224
"The Commission was obliged to bow before evidences and bear testimony to the fact that such inhuman methods were actually used in spite of the general censure of the world people." (Documents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 447.)
According to the criminal plan for germ warfare, the US aggressors went gradually over from the experimental stage to the operational stage. They schemed to extend its scope to most of the northern half of the Republic.
In late May 1952, Berkers, Commander of the US Fifth Air Force, who had taken the place of Everest gave instruction to Jerome, Commander of the First Wing of the US Marine Corps, to further escalate the germ warfare.
Jerome immediately summoned staff members of the First Wing for conference to execute the directive of Berkers. At the conference he said, "I was just given the directive to make a great change in this action (germ warfare-Quoter)." Referring to the plan for the operational stage of the germ warfare, he added: "General Berkers urged us to create the infected belt running across the central part of north Korea, The First Wing of the Air Force of the Marine Corps is assigned to the left flank, to which belong Sinanju, Kunu-ri and their neighbourhood and the section between them. The Air Force is assigned to the rather bigger section of the central part ranging from Kunu-ri to the spot 30 miles away from the east coast. The Navy takes charge of the right flank".*
^"Testimony Given by Frank H. Schewable, Colonel of the US Marine Corps, on December 19, 1952" (Ibid., pp. 139-40).
Upon the directive of Berkers, Commander of the US Fifth Air Force, the US aggressors planned to develop the germ warfare on an operational stage by concentrated strikes on the fixed areas of the northern half and the repeated contamination of them at an interval of ten days.
The US aggressors fixed these areas along line running across the central part of the northern half of the Republic, because they wanted to paralyze and cut the supply line to the front. This plan fully revealed the miserable image and vulnerability of the US imperialists who tried to retrieve themselves from the defeat at the front on the strength of insects and bacilli, as their air force had no chance of success in the "strangulation" operation.
At the operational stage, they set numerous squadrons in motion. In 1952 alone, they mobilized the 3rd and 17th Light Bomber Wings of the US Air Force, the 4th and 51st Fighter-bomber Wings, the 8th, 18th, 49th, 58th and
225
474th Fighter-bomber Wings, and the 1st Wing of the Air Force of the Marine Corps for the atrocious germ warfare. The mission of germ bomb dropping was carried out by B-29 and B-26 bombers, F-51, F-80, F-84 and F-86 fighters and fighter-bombers of the US Air Force of Marine Corps.*
* Documents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 108.
In November 1952, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force Vandenburg himself flew into Korea to direct the general course of germ warfare and inspect its results together with Barkers, Commander of the US Fifth Air Force.
To cover up their germ warfare crime, the US aggressors, on Vandenburg’s directive, waged the germ warfare mainly by night. In this, they combined the dropping of germ bombs with reconnaissance and bombings. They kept all matters related to the microbe war in top secret and had all the battle reports coded.*
* Ibid., p. no.
Germ bombs were mainly dropped over the most vulnerable targets such as densely populated areas, areas stationed by troops, traffic junctures, roads, railways and bridges. They made no scruple to commit crimes by dropping them on rivers and reservoirs, too.
Sinanju is a town most severely affected by the atrocious germ warfare of the US aggressors. They made a germ attack on Sinanju for five successive days from January 10, 1953, mobilizing, on an average, 480 planes every day. Thus, they were the first to launch the disgraceful largest-scale germ warfare in the war history of the world.
The US aggressors openly launched chemical warfare along with the germ one. Between May and June, 1951, three B-29s dropped gas bombs on Hupho-ri, Jukdong-ri, Ryongjong-ri and Ryongsu-ri of Samhwa Sub-County around Nampho, causing 1,379 casualties. Gas bombs were also dropped on Yong-song-ri and Wonchon-ri in Hwanghae Province on August 1 and on Hakson-ri north of Wonsan on January 9, 1952, thus committing a criminal atrocity of killing innocent people.
The US germ warfare outrages were perpetrated with the active support of the Japanese militarists, who had "experience" of germ warfare.
The Japanese militarists rendered active assistance to the US aggressors in the drawing up of a barbarous bacteriological war plan. They turned the territo-
226
ry of Japan into an attack and supply base for conducting germ warfare and provided the Americans with information on the "experience"* they had gained in their research into germ weapons and in the production of germ bombs and on methods for conducting bacteriological warfare and their latest achievements in that field.
* During the Second World War the Japanese aggressors perpetrated the criminal act of using germ weapons for the first time in history to massacre Chinese, Russian and Korean people in northeast China. For this purpose, they organized such germ weapon research organs as "Unit 731" and "Unit 100", special army units, in northeast China, headed by Ishii Shiro, army surgeon lieutenant-general of the former Japanese army. In the name of a "medical research centre1’, the special units had libraries, laboratories, plants for the manufacture of germ weapons and prisons, all requirements for research into bacteriology and experiments on it. Thus they cultured cholera, typhus, pests and other germs in rats, fleas and other insects and animals and used POWs in experiments for their war of human butchery. Their "special plants" near Haerbin and Changchun produced many types of bacteriological weapons including fabbit to use them in germ warfare. They served to be the wherewithal of US imperialists in their germ warfare.
(Data of the Trials of the Servicemen of the Former Japanese Army Accused on the Charge of Preparation and Application of Germ Weapons, Moscow, the Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1950 edition, pp. 130-31.)
As they admit, with neither germ nor chemical warfare could the US aggressors bring the Korean people to their knees or retrieve themselves from ignominious defeat.*
* In his book entitled The United States Defeated, Yoshitake Yojo wrote: "The germ warfare waged by the US imperialists only proved complete military defeat of the UN troops. Bacterial weapons, before being denounced for inhumanity, immorality and barbarity, are lethal weapons for the defeated militarily. What awaits ahead of those who use them is the judgement of military defeat" (Yoshitake Yojo, The United States Defeated, Tokyo, p. 98).
Upholding the order of the Military Commission issued by President Kim II Sung, the entire Korean people launched a powerful mass movement to cope with germ warfare. They placed observation posts and anti-epidemic corps in different parts, discovered germ bombs and germ carriers scattered by
227
the US aggressors and thus prevented possible damage in good time. This foiled the aggressive schemes of the US imperialists to massacre our people and cut off the supply line to the front. Their inhuman atrocity of germ warfare was made the target of the world people’s unanimous curse and denunciation and thus they met ever more serious political and moral defeat.
The report of the Commission of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers on US Crimes in Korea dated March 31, 1952, denounced the US imperialists, saying: "The use of such inhuman weapons as germ weapons must be taken to indicate a new degree of savagery in the conduct of so-called civilized states which must threaten every man, woman and child".*] In their joint statement on April 2nd, 1952, home and foreign journalists vehemently denounced them: "We call on the conscience of the whole world to demand the cessation of such horrible crimes against humanity, which contain the seeds of destroying all people, and the punishment of the criminals responsible for it."*2
*1. Documents on Atrocities of The US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 391. *2. Ibid., p. 398.
As their aggressive scheme to bring the Korean war to a close in reliance on their military and technical superiority was doomed to failure, the US aggressors could not but resort to such a most barbarous and inhuman means of war as germ warfare which was banned by international law. This atrocity was clear proof of their last-ditch struggle. At the same time, it showed that they were so weak and barbarous as to try to find a way out with the help of insects. It also revealed once again before the whole world that the US aggressors, descendants of the murderous founders of the United States of America, were no other than cannibals of the 20th century and two-legged beasts in the guise of a "civilized nation" who had no scruples of employing any brutal methods and means of war to achieve their aggressive aim.*
* David W. Conde wrote that of the 38 US prisoners of war who had confessed to their participation in the atrocious germ warfare in Korea, ten openly retracted their confession in their letters sent after their return home to the UN Secretary-General on October 26, 1953. But he added with scorn that "at that time some observers held that if all the 38 prisoners had made similar statements the position of the United States would have been firmer". (David W. Conde, An Untold History of Modern Korea, Tokyo, Vol. II, p. 411.)
228
5. US Imperialists’ Serious Military, Political and Moral Defeats in the Korean War
1) US Imperialists’ Crushing Military Defeat in the Korean War
The US imperialists became more frantic in their effort to save the exploded myth of their "mightiness", instead of drawing a due lesson from their repeated heavy defeats in the war.
President Eisenhower who had taken office in place of Truman made preparations for a new offensive to achieve an "honourable armistice".
On December 5, 1952, before leaving Korea after "inspection" of the Korean front, he summoned the commanders of ground, sea and air forces of the aggressor army on the Korean front, Clark, Van Fleet, Wayland, and even the head of the US Military Advisory Group in Taiwan to the Headquarters of the US Eighth Army to plot together to escalate the war. The outcome was Eisenhower’s "new offensive" plan for the so-called "retaliation strategy".
Eisenhower’s "new offensive" plan was to form a new front along 40 degrees north latitude by carrying out amphibious operations and an air attack by parachutists against the rear positions of the Korean People’’s Army with simultaneous breakthrough operations on the front. To this end, it was planned to make an attack on the Chinese mainland and enforce a coastal blockade by the US naval and air forces and carry out harassing operations by Chiang Kai-shek puppet troops in the rear of China.*
* US President Eisenhower openly spoke out the scheme to extend war by the "new offensive". He said: "If we go over to a big offensive, we will be evidently obliged to extend war beyond the bounds of Korea by the bombing on the Chinese supply airfields in Manchuria, the blockade of the Chinese coast and other similar means" (Eisenhower, Memoirs, Vol. I, Tokyo, p. 162).
229
The plan meant that by mobilizing all the armed forces, they would push the front northward, occupy the territory of the northern half of the Republic and then extend the war over the continent, so that they could achieve an "honourable armistice" by all means. Eisenhower’s "new offensive" scheme was, in fact, a replica of the so-called "retaliation plan" of MacArthur who had dreamed wildly of extending the aggressive war to the continent.
However, the "new offensive" plan of the US imperialists, on which they had hinged their last hopes, ended in a fiasco in the face of the flawless defence stand of the brave soldiers of the Korean People’s Army. The enemy lost 78,000 men and an area of 160 square kilometres in three powerful counter-strokes staged by the combined units of the Korean People’s Army,
With no "offensives", nor nuclear blackmail policy, nor large-scale "scorched-earth" and "strangulation" operations, nor massacres and criminal atrocities of germ warfare could the US imperialists bring the Korean people to their knees and retrieve themselves from their defeat in the three-year-long
Korean war.
As the complete failure of the "new offensive" was obvious, the US imperialists had no other choice but to give up the daydream of an "honourable armistice". They turned up at the armistice talks without regard to the prestige of the United States around which the myth of "mightiness" had been crystallized. On July 27, 1953, they fell to their knees before the Korean people and signed the armistice agreement.
Thus, the Korean war that lasted three years and one month ended in a great victory for the Korean people.
The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said:
"In the Korean war, the US imperialists suffered an ignominious military defeat for the first time in the history of the United States; this meant the beginning of a downward path for US imperialism." (Kim II Sung, Works,
Eng.ed., Vol. 19, p. 422.)
The Korean war proved the complete bankruptcy of the aggression tactics of the US imperialists who tried to achieve their aggressive aim, counting on their numerical and technical superiority and resorting to the most brutal methods and means of warfare. It exploded the myth of their "mightiness".
The US imperialists that boasted of knowing no defeat in over 110 aggressive wars and over 8,900 overseas invasions in their history underwent irretrievably serious military, political and moral defeats for the first time in Korea. Even the former US Defence Secretary, Marshall, had to admit com-
230
plete explosion of the myth of their "mightiness", deploring: "The myth exploded to atoms, and it became clear to everyone that the United States was not so strong as others had thought her to be."
Militarily, the US suffered really heavy defeat in the Korean war.
During the three years of aggressive war, the US imperialists had thrown into the short and narrow Korean front a huge armed force, numbering two million altogether, including one-third of their ground force boasting of its "up-to-date equipment", one-fifth of their air force, and the greater part of their Pacific fleet, plus troops of 15 of their satellite countries and the south Korean puppet troops, and squandered over 73 million tons of war materiel.* They even resorted to the most barbarous methods and means of warfare ever known to mankind throughout war history.
* The History of Korean War reads on page 556: The military expenditure, direct and indirect, of the United States in the Korean war amounted to 165 billion dollars.
The United States brought into the Korean war a huge armed force unprecedented in war history and large quantities of up-to-date technical equipment, which far exceeded the total of those it had put in Asia, Africa and Latin America during World War II. This was a case unprecedented in war history.
The US imperialists mobilized to the Korean war the US 24th, 25th and 2nd Dividions, 1st Marine Corps, 1st Cavalry Division, and 7th, 5th 3rd, 40th, 45th and 9th Divisions and other "crack" divisions which were provided with up-to-date combat and technical equipment and "honoured" with so-called "victory" in numerous overseas aggressive wars. In an attempt to wage the Korean war in a "blitz", they assigned to the Korean front MacArthur, Ridgway, Clark, Walker, Van Fleet, Dean, Moore, Gey, Keiser, Smith and other notorious homicidal generals who had rendered "distinguished services" in many overseas wars of aggression and "improved" their tactics of manslaughter and aggression in them. Displaying their military and technical superiority based on their powerful military and economic potentials, the US imperialists made 1,050,000 sorties in all for barbarous bombing on the northern half of the Republic. As the south Korean puppets admitted, however, "no amount of air strikes could block the enemy’s supply services to the front, or destroy his positions at the front".*
* The History of the Korean War, Seoul, p. 548.
231
The US imperialists made a grave miscalculation. They failed to estimate the invincible strength of the heroic Korean people and the Korean People’s Army under the wise leadership of the great revolutionary leader Comrade Kim II Sung, ever-victorious, iron-willed brilliant commander and gifted military strategist, the genuine advantage of the people’s democracy and the politico-ideological unity of the Korean people who were firmly rallied around the great leader. They failed to see the grim truth that no force can conquer the people who have become the master of the country and exercise their
sovereign rights.
The US imperialists sustained one military defeat after another from the first days of the war, which marked the beginning of the explosion of the myth
of their "mightiness".
A commentator of the newspaper Observer pointed out that the Korean war showed "how the powerful US armed forces carried on a hopeless yet arduous war and how the troops of north Korea, the smallest country, repulsed the US troops and threw them into the sea".*i In its editorial the British periodical Economist satirized their stunning defeat; "Both Asia and Europe will not forget the sight when the well-armed and technically-equipped armies of the powers (the US and Britain) having the command of the air and sea were routed by the lightly armed big troop of infantry."*2
*\. Observer July 15, 1950.
*2. Economic, December 9, 1950.
Already in the early period of the war, the 24th Division of the US imperialist aggression army boasting of its being an "invincible division" was annihilated by the immediate counterattack of the heroic Korean People’s Army, and during the first six months covering up to the second campaign of the third stage of the war alone, the US 25th Division, 2nd Division, 1st Cavalry Division, 1st Marine Corps and many other "crack" divisions were routed. Even a US imperialists’ reptile press could not but admit the US defeat by commenting: "The United States and its allies are undergoing a great calamity. The UN Forces were shattered to pieces by the communist army, and US troops beat a decisive retreat.... That was the worst defeat the United States had ever suffered."
From the beginning of the war the US imperialists carried on their operations with an absolute numerical and technical superiority over the Korean People’s Army, but all of them ended in humiliating defeat.
232
The "Christmas General Offensive" in 1950 so vaunted by them was shattered overnight and ended in an ignominious defeat, which resulted in the "December general retreat". The "summer and autumn offensives" in 1951 were crushed with the casualty of over 150,000 effectives and loss of a large quantity of combat equipment. And Eisenhower’s "new offensive" plan put into action between the end of 1952 and the beginning of 1953, too, was miscarried in the face of the heroic struggle of the KPA soldiers and the Korean people who had risen up in a showdown. And neither "scorched-earth" and "strangulation" operations conducted on the basis of a much-bragged "air supremacy," nor barbarous "murder" operations could bring the Korean people to their knees and "strangle" the front and the rear.
And it was not "victory" and "honour" but ignominious defeat, shame and death that were in store for the bellicose generals who came to the Korean front, bringing with them numerous divisions. MacArthur who sustained one defeat after another in the Korean war was sacked, labeled as a "defeated general". Walker, Commander of the Eighth Army, was killed in a raid of the People’s Army, and Moore, Commander of the 9th Army Corps, Green, Commander of the Australian troops and others died the death of a dog. Dean, Commander of the 24th Division, which had routed the "Emperor’s Invincible Army" in the operation to recapture the Philippines during the Pacific War and been "ever-victorious" to be called an "Invincible Division", was caught in the act of escaping in a soldier’s uniform during the battle in Taejon. Smith, Commander of the US 1st Marine Corps, which had long been notorious as a "strangler of national-liberation movement" and called the "crack of the Marine Corps", lost the bulk of his men in the Korean war and was called a "tomb general". Keiser, Commander of the Second Division, who had raved that his division, "though the Second Division, does never rank second", deserted his men. Frustrated in the "summer and autumn offensives", Ridgway and Van Fleet could not escape the fate of "defeated generals". And Clark, who "gained the unenviable distinction of being the first United States Army Commander in history to sign an armistice agreement without victory", shared the same fate with the above-mentioned bellicose generals.
The US imperialists sustained great loss in manpower and materiel on the Korean front during the three years of war: 1,567,128 men including 405,498 US soldiers, 1,130,965 south Korean puppet troops, and 30,665 soldiers of their satellite states were killed, wounded or captured; 12,224 airplanes including "air fortress B-29" were downed, damaged or captured, 7,695 guns, 3,255
233
tanks and armored cars were lost; and 564 warships and vessels including the heavy cruiser Baltimore and the flagship of the Seventh Fleet Missouri were sunk or damaged. The loss suffered by the US imperialists was nearly 2.3 times greater than what they had suffered in the four years of the Pacific War during World War II. It was an appalling loss and a serious military defeat unprecedented in the US history of war.
The ignominious military defeat suffered by the US aggressors in the Korean war proved the complete bankruptcy of the myth of their "mightiness" built on military and technical superiority.
The Korean war exploded the myth that the atmoic bomb decides the outcome of war.
Lilienthal, the former Chairman of the US Atomic Commission, said: "Though powerful, the atomic bomb is neither an absolute nor decisive weapon. Even its use will not relieve the United States of such a tough work as to augment its land power and increase either air power or naval strength. The atomic bomb is by no means an omnipotent weapon."* US warmonger Taft deploringly remarked: "We must bear in mind that militarily the atomic bomb is not such an absolutely superior weapon as we once considered it to be."
* American magazine Colliers, March 2. 1951.
These comments show that the US imperialists themselves came to discredit the myth of the omnipotence of nuclear weapons. Moreover, now that the United States lost the nuclear monopoly, it was as good as Don Quixote’s delusion to attempt to achieve their strategic aim by nuclear blackmail.
The Korean war also blew up the myth told by the US ruling circles, the myth that the strategic bombing based on air supremacy exerts a decisive influence on the outcome of war.
In the Korean war the strategic bombing through air supremacy proved to be completely powerless before the people’s democracy.
Clark, the former Commander of the UN Forces, admitted the complete
bankruptcy of air supremacy, saying: "Our air force failed to prevent the
streams of the enemy’s supplies and reinforcements from reaching the battle
. front. Namely, it failed to ‘isolate’ the front. This made the war a war between
infantry-men."*
* Mark Clark, The Hidden History of the Korean War, Seoul, p. 18. 234
Clark’s statement testified to the fact that the Korean war shattered the illusion about the US imperialists’ "air force first policy" and strategic bombing.
Counting on "air supremacy", the US imperialists levelled Korean cities and villages to the ground and destroyed roads and bridges. But they could not stop the Korean people’s struggle for wartime production and their assistance for the front, Nor could they break the fighting spirit of the Korean people who were stoutly safeguarding the people’s democracy from the enemy’s encroachment. The Korean people, firmly rallied around the President, continued wartime production in defiance of the enemy’s ceaseless heavy bombings and repaired destroyed roads and bridges by night to ensure the uninterrupted supply to the front.
The military defeat suffered by the US imperialists in the Korean war proved that "military and technical superiority" was utterly insignificant before the mighty revolutionary army. Even the US rulers could not but admit: "The US soldiers and officers have realized that armament superiority is no guarantee for victory."*
* New York Times, December 9, 1950.
As Bradley himself admitted, the US imperialists waged "the wrong war at the wrong place, at the wrong time and with the wrong enemy".*
* Robert Murphy, Diplomat among Soldiers, Tokyo, p. 450.
The military defeat the US imperialists suffered in the Korean war shattered the myth of their "mightiness" and revealed their vulnerability to the full, bringing about the beginning of a down-hill turn for them.
2) The Politico-Moral Defeat of US Imperialism in the Korean War
US imperialism suffered a serious defeat in the Korean war not only militarily but also politically and morally.
235
The politico-moral defeat of the US army in the Korean war was one of the important factors that determined the total collapse of the myth about the "mightiness" of US imperialism.
As is generally known, after World War II the US imperialists in the guise of "liberator" and "assister" spread worship of America in small and weak nations and colonial and dependent countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and created the illusion of their "mightiness". In particular, priding themselves on being a "civilized nation" and glorifying the "Goddess of Liberty", they posed as "the defender of liberty, democracy and humanism", noisily advertised the American-style "civilization" and behaved as an "apostle of peace" preaching "peace" for slavish submission.
But the Korean war fully laid bare their hypocrisy as well as their tricky and reactionary nature.
The Korean war completely and clearly exposed before mankind the true nature of the US imperialists as the incarnation of brutality, cruelty and craftiness. In the war they deliberately used mass destruction weapons including germ weapons, the use of which had already been prohibited by international law, and committed indiscriminate bombings both at the front and in the rear, reducing the whole land of Korea to ashes and slaughtering peaceable inhabitants en masse.
The whole course of the Korean war clearly showed that US imperialism was none other than the most heinous war igniter, a vicious enemy of peace and democracy, a shameless strangler of freedom and national independence and a blood-thirsty cutthroat.
As a result of their politico-moral defeat in the Korean war the US imperialists were thoroughly isolated from the world people.
Through the Korean war the world public came to know the brutal nature of US imperialism all the more clearly in the guise of a "civilized nation." They realized more keenly that US imperialism was a most heinous enemy of human civilization, a nefarious racist and a strangler of justice, freedom and national independence.
Therefore, journalists of various countries of the world, who during World War II had experienced Hitler’s atrocities in Warsaw and Paris and bombings .by the Nazi Air Force in London, and witnessed the savagery perpetrated by US imperialism in Hiroshima and actually observed the atrocities committed by the "Imperial Army" in China under Japanese imperialist occupation, unanimously denounced US imperialism for its atrocities in Korea which were
236
"unprecedented in other countries throughout world history".*
* "A Joint Statement Announced by a Journalists’ Group at Home and Abroad Denouncing the Use of Germ Weapons by the US Army," April 2, 1952, (Documents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 398).
Hershel D. Meyer mocked at the US rulers, saying that thanks to the beast-like atrocities committed by US imperialism in the Korean war, Washington tore to shreds "all the perfect legends concerning the ‘defence of Christian faith and Western civilization’" (Hershel D.Meyer, The Modern History of the United States, Kyoto, p. 191.)
In particular, all the bestialities committed in Korea by the US warmongers roused the indignation and anger of all the Korean people and the honest-minded people the world over.
The progressive people of the world launched various forms of anti-US, anti-war campaigns. They offered opposition to the US imperialists who were waging an unjust war in Korea. In all parts of the world, they raised their voices of indignation, demanding: "US imperialism, take your bloodstained hands off Korea!"
As the myth of US imperialism’s "mightiness" was exploded and its vulnerability fully revealed to the world as a result of its politico-moral defeat in the Korean war, the anti-imperialist, national-liberation struggle of the world’s oppressed people who wanted to follow the path of independence, dispelling the "illusion" about the US, entered a new stage of development.
The crushing defeat of US imperialism in the Korean war put an end to the era when imperialism had been able to persecute and subjugate the revolution-making peoples at will. The Korean war proved the truth that if the people of a small country rise up in the fight for freedom, independence and progress, they can destroy any stronghold of imperialism.
President Kim II Sung had for the first time in history brought defeat to the US imperialists who had boasted of being the "strongest" in the world. This led the hundreds of millions of exploited and oppressed peoples of the world to greet the magnificent new period of world history in which the knell was tolled in the land of Korea in the East for the "Great American Empire" which for centuries had invaded and plundered the world as it pleased.
With the Korean war as a momentum, the anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle of the oppressed peoples of the world passed onto a new stage. Before the serious wound it had received in the Korean war was healed, US imperialism
237
suffered one blow after another all over the world to sink deeper into the abyss of ruin.
Due to its heavy politico-moral defeat in the Korean war, US imperialism was further isolated from its "allies" and satellite countries.
From the first days of the war the US imperialists manoeuvred to impose the heavy burden and great human sacrifice for their aggressive war upon their "allies" and satellite countries. But as the war dragged out and their plots to escalate it became more blatant, their "allies" and satellite countries blamed them for their sinister design, and contradiction between them sharpened with each passing day. Even the reactionary British ruling circles who had most actively supported the US aggressive war in Korea turned away in the end from the latter’s war escalation scheme. The then US President Truman croaked that among the UN member states "42 were giving assistance to the UN Forces". But, in reality, only 15 countries dispatched their mercenary soldiers to Korea. Most of Asian and Arab countries refused the US demand for troop dispatch. Their satellite states turned a cold shoulder to their demand for the reinforcement of troops. The US News and World Report wrote: "In England, there is a strong sentiment against its participation in the Korean war. According to the English, this war is being carried on in the interests of the United States and for the American way of life as they ironically said. The English don’t want both this and that."*i The Economist wrote: "It seems that the present US policy takes a form of imperative order. Unless one obeys it at once, it takes offence. We are a very close friend to the US. But, it is a pity that the English people’s faith in the US capacity of leadership over the free world is shaken."*2 This was a reflection of the American-British contradiction incidental to the Korean war.
* 1. US News and World Report, June 1, 1951. *2. Economist, January 14, 1951.
In his diary, Lieutenant M. Hwarie, a French mercenary, who was sent to the Korean front to throw away his life, wrote: "...The French soldiers in Korea are used like a stupid mule to the letter. All, except Americans who want to play on our backs, shoulder the major burden of fierce battles on the land of Korea." * 1 Thus, deploring his miserable lot as a mercenary, he cursed the US imperialists who behaved like masters.
Noncommissioned officer D.B. Himenes, who belonged to the 10th Bat-
238
talion of the Philippine mercenary troops, cursed the Korean war provoked by the warmongers of US imperialism, saying: "Americans are maltreating Philippines. They regard us as inferior people.... There is no Philippine soldier that does not curse the war started by Americans."*2
*1. E. Varga, The Basic Problem of Imperialist Economy and Politics. Vol. I, Pyongyang,
p. 189.
*2. Neues Deutschland, July 24, 1952.
With the expansion of the Korean war, there was a sharp increase in the number of deserters against it from the troops of the US, its satellite countries and the puppet regime. According to official data, in 1952 the number of deserters from the US army on the way to the Korean front was five times that in the several early months of the war. Between June 1950 and the end of 1952 alone, the number of deserters from the US troops excluding the naval and air forces reached upward of 46,000.*
* US News and World Report, January 23, 1953.
According to the announcement made in December 1952 by Lien, head of the "AMAG", 30-40 per cent of the south Korean youth who had received the conscription orders evaded the draft and the number of deserters from the puppet army amounted to 200,000. This is only one example explaining the unjust nature of the Korean war waged by US imperialism.
Though the US imperialists dragged the troops of their satellite countries into the Korean war, they had to take, in the end, 90 per cent of all military operations upon themselves under the signboard of the "UN Forces". This frustrated their original plan to carry on the Korean war with the mercenary troops from their satellite countries.
The crushing defeat in the Korean war brought about a serious crisis in the military strategy and diplomatic policies of the US ruling circles, giving rise to a collective conflict and disruption unknown in history. Having suffered an ignominious defeat in the Korean war, the advocates of "air power" and "ground force" within the reactionary ruling circles of US imperialism were split into two groups-one for "immediate war" that called for immediate expansion of the Korean war and the other for "later war" that insisted on the expansion of the Korean war after arming Europe better. They attacked and
239
censured each other, each asserting that its own strategy and tactics were the best prescriptions for the invasion of Korea, China and the Soviet Union. One of such examples was a dogfight between the two groups at the two-month-long "public hearings" at the US Senate in mid-1951.
As can be seen, due to their politico-moral defeat in the Korean war, the US imperialists were isolated from their "allies", not to speak of the world public, and thus driven into a tighter corner.
The US imperialists who had boasted of being the "strongest" in the world suffered a serious military and politico-moral defeat in their bloodstained aggressive history of over 100 years for the first time in Korea and found themselves on the downgrade. The Korean people had matured to be a heroic people by defeating US imperialism for the first time in the world. They not only firmly defended the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, their glorious fatherland, but also reliably safeguarded the security of the socialist countries and
world peace.
The Korean people’s great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War was a brilliant victory of the Juche-oriented, revolutionary military strategy of President Kim II Sung, the ever-victorious, iron-willed brilliant commander and gifted military strategist, who had accumulated rich experience in the protracted arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and combined a great revolutionary idea with outstanding leadership ability and brilliant military art. It was the great victory of the Korean people’s politico-moral superiority over the US military-technical supremacy.
240
Conclusion
The US imperialists, who had occupied south Korea in place of the Japanese imperialists following the Second World War, forced reactionary fascist colonial rule upon it from the first day of their occupation, perpetrated ceaseless military provocations against the northern half of the Republic in the foolish hope of invading the whole of Korea and Asia, and at last on June 25, 1950, unleashed a war of aggression against the Korean people.
Their armed aggression against the Korean people was the extension of their 100-odd-year long criminal policy of aggression against Korea; it was also a link in the chain of their aggressive programme for world domination. Waging in Korea the most barbarous war of genocide ever known in history, the US imperialists schemed to bring the Korean people to their knees and nip the DPRK in the bud, employing every available brutal method defying the imagination.
But the US war zealots made a grave mistake in their calculation and eventually met with an ignominious defeat at the hands of the Korean people.
Having suffered a serious military, political and moral defeat in the Korean war, the US imperialists began sliding downhill for the first time in US history to explode the myth about their "mightiness".
Imperialists do not by nature draw a lesson from their defeat. Far from learning a due lesson from history, from their miserable defeat in the Korean war, the US imperialists have pursued the policy of aggression and war ever since the conclusion of the Armistice Agreement in their desperate effort to save themselves from sliding downhill. An eloquent proof of this is furnished by the records of facts in the last twenty odd years after the war.
The US imperialists followed the course of aggression in a more blunt way after the war, working hard to find an outlet from their declining fate in the policy of aggression and war. But their policy for world domination, especially their Asian strategy and policy of aggression on Korea, required an overall "reexamination".
The US imperialists started to "reexamine" their policy of aggression from November 1953 under the name of the "strategic change". They came out with an adventurous "strategy of extensive reprisal" which they modified and complemented twice at the beginning and in the summer of 1954.
241
The "strategy of extensive reprisal" was first made public through the mouth of US State Secretary Dulles at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council held at PL. Hotel, New York, on January 12, 1954. Under this new strategy the US imperialists were to keep up their "policy of strength" by pressing the arms drive on a new stage mainly with thermonuclear weapons and guided missiles, capitalizing on their temporary supremacy in the field of those atomic and strategic offensive arms, and intensifying the militarization of the economy while replenishing their ebbing strength by drawing in more of their satellites including the West German and Japanese militarists and their puppets of south Korea, South Viet Nam and the like.
Indicative of this are the conclusion of the "US-Japan Mutual Defence Pact" in March 1954, the fabrication of the "SEATO" in September 1954, the creation of tension in the Taiwan Strait in February 1955, and a series of other facts.
In pursuing the policy of aggression on Korea under their postwar "strategy of mass reprisal" based on the "policy of strength", the US imperialists laid stress on their permanent occupation of south Korea while hampering Korea’s reunification, fortified south Korea as their military strategic base by extensively reinforcing the puppet armed forces, and at the same time lined up the south Korean puppets with the Japanese militarists and sped up preparations for a new war for the occupation of the whole of Korea.
From this, the US imperialists above all manoeuvred to keep themselves in south Korea for good. On April 7, 1953 when there had already been created a realizable possibility for the conclusion of the Armistice Agreement in Korea, President Eisenhower declared that the US troops would remain in south Korea even if fire was ceased. The US imperialists schemed to remain permanently in south Korea by forming a "mutual defence pact". This was manifested in Eisenhower’s letter to Syngman Rhee in June and in the "joint communique" issued in July that year between Robertson, Assistant Undersecretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, and the Syngman Rhee clique.
On August 8, 1953, even before the ink of their signature to the Armistice Agreement had dried, State Secretary Dulles and Army Secretary Stevenson flew to south Korea and concluded the "ROK-US Mutual Defence Pact" with the puppet clique in an attempt to perpetuate the occupation of south Korea by US imperialism. (It was formally "signed" in Washington on October 1 and "ratified" in January 1954.)
Stipulated in this "pact" are the permanent occupation of south Korea by
242
the US troops and their right for military action against the northern half of the Republic. It was therefore an aggressive "pact" allowing the US imperialists to launch war at any moment.
The "ROK-US Agreement on Military and Economic Aid" initiated by the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet clique on November 17, 1954 and the "minutes of the ROK-US Talks" were supplements to the "ROK-US Mutual Defence Pact", which reaffirmed the permanent occupation of south Korea by the US troops and provided for a tightening of the military, political and economic control of US imperialism over south Korea and the warlike preparations for the "conquest of the north".
Under the "pact" and "agreement" the US imperialists not only perpetuated their occupation of south Korea but worked hard to turn south Korea into a military strategic base commensurate with the preparations for a new war, extensively reinforcing the puppet army and illegally supplying materiel needed for war.
With the aim of enlarging the south Korean puppet armed forces, the US imperialists had cooked up a "volunteer ordinance" and organized ten reserve divisions by July 1955. As a result, the puppet armed forces swelled to 31 divisions from 16 at the time of the ceasefire, and its numerical strength to 720,000 from 594,000.
In the postwar period the US imperialists also attached great significance to converting south Korea into a powerful military base, so necessary for war preparations.
At the close of 1954, Almond, Commander of the 10th Army Corps, stated at US Congress: "There is not a battle-ground better than Korea which has a supply base, a base for naval and air support. Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan which will serve as a rear base are safe from attack from both China and the Soviet Union. Korea is the first-rate strategic zone."* This shows they had given a greater meaning to turning south Korea into a military base in the postwar period.
* US News and World Report, December 10, 1954.
According to their policy of turning south Korea into a military base, the US imperialists ballooned the US armed forces in south Korea and expanded their military establishments.
Their aggressive move for the provocation of a new war was unusually
243
intensified in 1956-57, synchronizing with the large-scale "anti-communist" campaign of the world imperialists and reactionaries.
On March 17, 1956, US State Secretary Dulles flew into south Korea, had a confidential talk with the Syngman Rhee puppet clique, made a provocative statement about "liberating north Korea" and let the south Korean puppets cry for a "northward expedition". Radford, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who visited south Korea twice in January and August 1956 egged the south Korean puppets on to the provocation of an aggressive war against the northern half of the Republic, saying that south Korea "need not fear" since the "UN force is behind the ROK army".
The "Eisenhower doctrine" was announced in 1957, and the US imperialists stepped up their policy of war against the northern half of the Republic. Between March and May 1957, President Eisenhower, Chief of the General Staff of the US Army Taylor, and other American war maniacs croaked about the so-called "imminent war" and "military imbalance between the north and the south", and insisted that new-type weapons should be offered to south Korea to improve the equipment of the US troops there as well as that of the puppet army.
Following this, the US imperialists illegally moved the "UN Command" to south Korea from Japan on July 1 that year and simplified their military control over south Korea by making the "UN Commander" concurrently hold the US Army Command and the US Eighth Army in south Korea. Shipping atomic weapons and guided missiles into south Korea in real earnest, they entered the road of turning south Korea into an atomic base. Between July and August 1957, they reorganized the US Seventh Division in south Korea into a pentom-ic division. In October that year they brought the US First Cavalry Division to south Korea from Japan, merged it with the US 24th division and reshaped them into a pentomic division by the end of December.
In this way the US imperialists converted south Korea into a forward base for atomic warfare in preparation for a new war and built up tension by direct threat of atomic warfare.
In accordance with their basic Asian strategy and policy of aggression on Korea, the US imperialists ganged up the Japanese militarists and the south Korean puppets and actively encouraged the former’s renewed aggression on south Korea, thus hindering the peaceful settlement of the Korean question in every way.
Such hindrance found vivid expression in their boycott of the political
244
conference which would discuss the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Korea, the peaceful solution of the Korean question and other affairs, in their breakup of the Geneva Conference and in their shady scheme to justify their permanent occupation of south Korea.
With the upsurge of the anti-US struggle of the south Korean people in April 1960 and the fall of the Syngman Rhee puppet regime as a momentum, the US imperialists became ever more overt in their colonial enslavement policy against south Korea and preparations for a new war.
After the overthrow of the Syngman Rhee puppet regime by the April Popular Uprising the US imperialists enacted the farce of setting up an "interim government" and then the "Second Republic" as their puppet regime in an attempt to maintain their colonial rule. But when that farce went awry, they undertook the criminal plot of framing up a naked military fascist dictatorial regime.
The plan for replacing the Syngman Rhee puppet regime with a military fascist dictatorial one had already been submitted to the US Department of State in early 1958 and laid before US Congress as a practical problem in the spring of 1959. The Conlon Report compiled at the end of that year by Ful-bright, Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noted: "Political crisis is growing in south Korea.... In the light of the increasing political instability and crisis it is necessary to figure the replacement of the party politics of the Syngman Rhee regime by military politics in case it fails."* President Kennedy accepted together with this "Conlon Report" the view of US Ambassador to Japan Reischauer who said: "Those who should carry forward south Korea are the new young armymen grown in the war field." Now Kennedy got down to engineering a "military coup" for a change of power in south Korea.
* Introduction of Korea, Sect. IV, "The Northeast Asian Policy" in the Conlon Report,
Thus a "military coup" was staged on May 16, 1961 by the military gangsters represented by pro-American and pro-Japanese stooge Pak Jong Hi, under the backstage manipulation of US imperialism. The "Military Revolutionary Commission" formed with the Pak Jong Hi military hooligans at the instigation of US imperialism was renamed on May 19, 1961 the "Supreme Council for National Reconstruction", which dissolved all the political parties and social organizations in south Korea, held all "administrative", "judicial" and "legisla-
245
live" powers, appointed active-duty army men to all important posts of the ruling machine from the centre down to the grass-roots level, and enforced a "military administration" as a fascist repressive rule backed by brutal military force. The military fascist rule enforced in south Korea by US imperialism assumed a most despotic and barbarous nature. It became the prototype of the colonial fascist rule of the imperialists.
The military fascist dictatorship established in south Korea fully revealed the weakness and desperateness of declining US imperialism which could no longer maintain its colonial rule without turning to bayonets.
After rigging up the May 16 "military coup" in south Korea the US imperialists intensified their military fascist rule and, on this basis, craftily tried to justify the criminal collusion between the south Korean puppets and the Japanese militarists.
Under the criminal "ROK-Japan treaty" and "agreements" concluded on June 22, 1965 under the wirepulling of US imperialism the south Korean puppets were tied up with the Japanese militarists, and the US imperialists became still more flagrant in their scheme to put up the Japanese military force as the "shock brigade" for aggression on Korea and other regions of Asia.
This move of the US imperialists was to provoke another war in Korea with south Korea as the forward base and with the Japanese military force as the "shock brigade" and to draw easily on the military potential of Japan in their war of aggression in Asia.
The US imperialists’ preparations for a new war and their military provocations reached a graver stage in Korea following the rigging up of the military fascist dictatorial regime and the conclusion of the criminal "ROK-Japan treaty" and "agreements".
President Kim II Sung said as follows:
"The US imperialist manoeuvres to provoke a new war in Korea have already reached an advanced stage. They have made full preparations in south Korea for another war, committing military provocations more openly against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 22, p. 387.)
Shipping into south Korea a huge amount of mass destruction weapons and modern weapons including strategic nuclear weapons and guided missiles to increase the combat capacity of the US army occupying south Korea and reinforcing the puppet armed force of south Korea, the US imperialists ceaselessly committed direct armed provocations against the northern half of the
246
Republic.
Especially, in order to build up the firm "US-Japan-ROK joint operation system" under the criminal "ROK-Japan treaty" and "agreements" the military collusion between US imperialism and Japanese militarism and that between the Japanese military force and the south Korean puppet clique were tightened and large-scale "US-Japan-ROK joint military exercises" were conducted frequently for the provocation of a new war.
Keeping pace with the war rackets of their master, the south Korean puppet clique cried ever louder for a north-south showdown by force, putting up the slogan of "reunification through domination over communism" instead of "reunification through a northward march".
In October 1966 President Johnson flew into south Korea and inspected the area around the Military Demarcation Line. The Korean situation thereafter became so grave it resembled the situation on the eve of the Korean war that had been created in June 1950 after Dulles’ inspection of the 38th parallel.
From the outset of 1967 the US imperialists were crazy for military provocations. Up to January 18 they daily infiltrated dozens of warships and armed vessels into the coastal waters of the DPRK, and on January 19 their armed spy boat PCE-56 was sunk by self-defence measures of the Korean People’s Army while committing provocative acts in the territorial waters of the DPRK.
How greatly the US imperialists intensified their military provocations in those days can be clearly seen from the fact that the bullets and shells fired by their aggressive troops at areas of the northern half of the Republic in one year by September 1967, after President Johnson’s visit to south Korea, numbered more than 69,000, that is, over five times as many as they had fired in 13 years after the armistice.
What was especially grave in the US manoeuvres for the provocation of a new war was the intrusion of their armed spy ship Pueblo into the territorial waters of the DPRK on an espionage mission.
As is widely known to the world, the US armed spy ship Pueblo, disguising itself as an "oceanic electron research ship", was seized by the naval vessels of the Korean People’s Army on January 23, 1968 in East Korea Bay, the territorial waters of the DPRK in 39° 17.4’ north latitude and 127° 46.9’ east longitude, while engaging in espionage and hostile acts in 17 places of the DPRK territorial waters from January 15. At that time the US imperialists schemed to extend this incident to the provocation of another Korean war.
247
They sounded off in a "threatening" tone about "retaliation", concentrating their huge task force including the biggest nuclear-driven aircraft carrier Enterprise on the East Sea of the DPRK and bringing a large number of fighter-bombers into south Korea from Okinawa of Japan. They openly perpetrated military provocations against the northern half of the Republic on the ground, on the sea and in the air, blustering that they "would attack Wonsan port if need be" and "bomb the strategic targets of north Korea" as a "retaliatory
step".
In the period from January to March 20, 1968, that is, around the time of the Pueblo incident, they committed as many as over 2,000 military provocations or 25 on a daily average on the ground alone, firing more than 40,000 bullets and shells on more than 400 occasions at the northern half of the Republic. The number of armed intrusions committed by the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet clique in the one year of 1968 against the northern half of the Republic more than trebled as compared with the previous year, and over six times more men were mobilized in them than those mobilized in 14 years after the armistice. On April 15, 1969, the US imperialists committed another grave military provocation by sending their large-sized spy plane EC-121 equipped with electronic devices deep into the air space of the DPRK to conduct a hostile espionage act. In particular, they brought the situation in Korea to the brink of war by creating the Phanmunjom incident in August
1976.
Such successive military provocations of the US imperialists were deliberate acts of aggression that could be committed, as the world history of war shows, only on the eve of war by the imperialists to find a pretext for war.
Later, the US reactionary rulers themselves were obliged to officially acknowledge their aggressive crimes committed against the Korean people.
At the Phanmunjom meeting on December 23, 1968, Gilbert H. Woodward, Major General of the US Army, on behalf of the US government apologized to the Korean people in connection with the Pueblo case:
"...Shoulders full responsibility and solemnly apologizes for the grave acts of espionage committed by the US ship against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea after having intruded into the territorial waters of the Demo-. cratic People’s Republic of Korea and gives firm assurance that no US ships will intrude again in future into the territorial waters of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea."
All these incidents which the whole world had watched with deep appre-
248
hensions could be brought under control and prevented from developing into a big war only thanks to the persistent peace policy of the Government of the DPRK.
Ever since liberation the DPRK Government has invariably held that Korea must be relieved from tension and the question of her reunification be solved peacefully, not by war. It proposed to solve the question of national reunification independently and peacefully on a democratic principle more than 150 times.
Especially, on July 4, 1972 the historic North-South Joint Statement whose keynote is the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity for national reunification was issued thanks to the sincere efforts of the DPRK Government to open a bright prospect for the Korean people’s cause of reunification, a new phase for their struggle for national reunification.
The US imperialists, however, doggedly clung to their policy of aggression and war as before. In words they "supported" and "welcomed" the north-south dialogue and the North-South Joint Statement when it was issued, but in deed they went against the developments of a new situation in Korea and the demand of the general trend. Innumerable are flagrant violations of the Military Armistice Agreement ever since the issue of the July 4 North-South Joint Statement.
Under the "Nixon doctrine" the US imperialists further intensified their move for the provocation of a new war, blaring that south Korea is the "test ground of the Nixon doctrine" and that the "confrontation scene" in the 1970s is "northeast Asia, Korea in particular". At the same time, they worked hard to maintain their colonial rule at least in south Korea by freezing the division of Korea and rigging up of "two Koreas".
How hard the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet clique had tried to provoke a new war can be seen easily from the number of the violations of the Armistice Agreement they committed in 21 years after the truce against the northern half of the Republic, which runs to the figure 144,390, counting only those which drew formal protests from the Government of the Republic.
Particularly, when they were driven out of Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos after suffering a shameful fiasco the US imperialists intensified their aggressive machinations against Korea in an unusually blunt manner with the wily aim of doggedly keeping south Korea as their stronghold for Asian aggression.
249
They have directed the spearhead of aggression to Southeast Asia, to Korea in particular, under their "new Asian strategy" following the so-called "Indochinese event". They even declared that it was a "vital factor" for them to hold on to south Korea.
War bosses of US imperialism proclaimed south Korea to be its "front defence area", harping on their "further strengthening of the tie" with the Pak Jong Hi puppet clique and on the "faithful observation of their commitments" to them. They went so far as to openly chant such outrageous words as: "The US troops will not come home"; "we will go into an all-out military intervention if need be", and "we will not hold back from using atomic weapons". And as a pretext for their permanent occupation of south Korea they were brazen enough to quibble: "The stationing of the US troops in south Korea is very important for peace in the Korean peninsula." In addition, the US imperialists reinforced their aggressive armed force in south Korea, reorganized its operational commanding system, shipped a large amount of nuclear weapons into south Korea, placed them in the area along the Military Demarcation Line and even conducted their launching practice, beating the drums of war. Not concealing their scheme to use the Japanese territory as the "launching base" for an aggressive war in Korea, the US imperialists mapped out a criminal plan even for opening a nuclear attack against the Korean people with Japan as the
base.
In 1976 they provoked the "Phanmunjom incident" and kicked up a full-scale war racket under that pretext.
Furthermore, in the name of "annual defensive war exercises", the US imperialists staged the provocative "Team Spirit" joint military exercise in south Korea every year, starting in 1976, and stepped up their nuclear war preparations, escalating its scale year after year. From the viewpoint of the composition of the armed forces and armament, and the substance of the war game, the military exercise was an out-and-out war preparation and nuclear test war aimed at a "preemptive strike" against the northern half of the country.
At present in the area south of the Military Demarcation Line more than 40,000 US soldiers and over one million south Korean puppet soldiers are on constant alert, ready to launch war against the north at any time, and more than 1,000 nuclear warheads and nuclear bombs are ready for a strike against the north.
All these past facts show that the US imperialists, travelling a downward path ever since the armistice, have not given up their criminal ambitions to
250
cling to south Korea and, with it as the base, to invade the whole of Korea and Asia and that to realize this aggressive ambition they are scheming to ignite a fresh war of aggression by putting the south Korean puppet clique to the fore as they had enkindled the Korean war in the past by egging on the Syngman Rhee clique.
The tense situation and the danger of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula are an outcome of the US policy vis-a-vis Korea and Asia.
Even after the "Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression and Cooperation and Exchange between the North and the South", the "Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" and subsidiary agreements concerning the implementation of the above documents were adopted and ratified, the US imperialists and the south Korean authorities, in order to sabotage their implementation, are continually aggravating the situation on the Korean peninsula and pursuing their foolish scheme to "unify Korea by prevailing over communism".
Due to the ever-intensified aggressive and war machinations of the US imperialists Korea is now in a state of grave danger where a war can break out again at any "moment just like the war of aggression broke out in the past.
However, if the US imperialists, oblivious of the lesson of history, are tenacious enough to provoke a new war of aggression in Korea, turning a deaf ear to the just demand of the Korean people and going against the current of the times, they will eventually perish in the flames of war once and for all, suffering a still greater, miserable defeat than they suffered in the past Korean war.
Printed in the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea
