Exchange of views between the United States and China regarding the future status of Korea and the question of recognizing a provisional Korean government

[For a note regarding correspondence on this subject in 1942, see Foreign Relations, 1942, China, page 762. In April and May, 1943 the question of recognizing a Korean Provisional Government was discussed by the Chinese Ambassador at the Department of State. He was informed that the Department envisaged an independent Korea after the war but that the matter of recognition had better rest in abeyance for the time being. The Ambassador said the Chinese view also favored letting the matter rest. In a despatch from Chungking on August 20, the Chargé reported a conversation with General Wang Peng-sheng, adviser to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, in which the latter stated that the question of recognizing a Korean Provisional Government was merely one aspect of a much greater problem affecting the future not only of Korea but also areas in southeastern Asia occupied by the Japanese. He urged the calling of a conference of the interested United Nations to formulate policy in this regard.

The correspondence referred to above is not printed in this volume but is reserved for publication with other papers regarding Korea in the regular annual volumes for 1943. Discussions regarding Korea at the First Cairo Conference are scheduled for publication in a subsequent volume of Foreign Relations.]