740.00119 Control (Korea)/11–1446: Telegram
The Political Adviser in Korea (Langdon) to the Secretary of State
priority
[Received November 15—5:09 a.m.]
Tfgbi 515 [to Tokyo]. Summary conditions Korea October 16 through October 31.
1. Political. Following police and tactical troops’ dispositions, patrolling to restore order and guard against new disorders, an ominous quiet reigned throughout the provinces at the beginning of the period, but as the month drew to its end further attacks on police and Korean officials of military govt and sabotage of transport and communications occurred in widely separated areas, with many killed and injured on both sides and heavy damage to property.
The centers of disorders were in the Kaesong area at the western end of the 38th parallel, in the nearby area southwest of Seoul, and in the Mokpo–Naju area in the southwest corner of the peninsula. At the same time stock was taken of the losses in the Taegu and Pusan areas at the beginning of the month. With regard to the first area, the National Police Director was quoted as saying that some 40 police and 40 rioters had been killed and that property losses to the people were estimated at yen 120,000,000, to police installation at 110,000,000 and to military govt agencies 160,000,000, also that 3,782 people had been apprehended. Casualties in the Pusan area were put at 7 policemen killed and 34 wounded, 29 rioters killed and 84 wounded and military govt personnel 10 wounded.
Serious riots were no doubt averted in Seoul on 22nd by the precautionary measures, including tank patrols, taken by the tactical forces and by police acting on warning from friendly Leftists that big scale riots were planned for that day. Thus when a mob of some 2,000 collected in the heart of the city bent on violent demonstration, they were easily dispersed. While the animosity toward the police and certain elements in military govt and the opposition to the rice collection are unquestionably the agitating elements of the trouble, there seems to be no doubt that the shaping of this discontent into violence and political hatreds has been the work of the implacable Pak Heun Yung’s gangs.
[Page 767]Unrelated to the disturbances, but probably connected with recent administrative changes in Seoul National University, was a crippling strike of 150 doctors in the University hospital on the 21st. By the 24th 40 had returned to their duties, and defections from the strike continued, but the difficulty was still unsettled at the end of the month.
Another strike of economic nature was a short-lived strike of ship captains at Pusan on 17th. The general reaction to the disorders has been shame and condemnation and a feeling of urgency for remedial measures, with different political blocs proposing to make their own investigations of the origins of the trouble. Acting on the suggestion of the Coalition Committee headed by Doctor Kimm Kiu Sik and Lyuh Woon Hyung, General Hodge on the 23rd invited the committee to sit with an American board composed of Generals Brown and Lerch, Doctor Bunce and three others to look into the causes of the disturbances and make recommendations for corrective action.
The first action taken by this group, known as the Joint American Korean Conference, was an appeal on the 25th to the people, over the signature of Doctor Kimm, Lyuh and Gen. Brown, for reason, [apparent garble] mistrust of agitators and cooperation with the authorities to improve the situation. General Hodge issued a prior special release along the same lines on the 23rd. The conference next on the 26th drew up the topics into which it would inquire and on which it would make recommendations.
These topics were presented by the Korean members as the cause of the disturbances, namely:
- (1)
- Enmity against the police, the presence of former Jap collaborators and of “interpreters” in military govt, corruption of some Korean officials, and agitators against the welfare of Southern Korea;
- (2)
- The rice collection and distribution program, inflation and high prices, refugee problems and the slowness of economic recovery;
- (3)
- Delay in formation of Provincial [Provisional?] Govt, discontent with administration of former Jap property, party influences and how to improve the govt.
The conference has been sitting daily, with qualified persons making reports and submitting evidence to it (a full report on the conference will be made when it completes its findings). In this confused atmosphere military govt went ahead with its scheduled (Oct. 17 to 29) elections for the 45 elective members of the Interim Legislature, and the full returns were in by the end of the period. Outside of two Leftists from Cheju Do and 12 Independents, all the successful candidates were members of the Rightest bloc, among them several alleged former Jap collaborators.
Although the elections were orderly and represented several weeks’ spade work by military govt, dissatisfaction with them was voiced by [Page 768] the Coalition Committee and by the Left. The latter claimed that insufficient time had been granted them for campaigning and that a campaign was out of the question in the circumstances, with all likely candidates under arrest or suspicion for alleged participation in the disorders. Confirmation by General Hodge of the elections was thus held in abeyance pending investigation of charges of unfairness and possible consideration of the reports of the elections prepared by the unofficial [observers?] despatched by the Coalition Committee. The Committee has also failed up to the present to submit to Gen. Hodge its recommendations for appointive members.
On the 18th General Lerch defined the legislative measures he would veto: matters affecting the American High Command, laws putting the burden of collecting rice on military govt but the distribution of rice in Korean hands, and laws endangering Korean economy.
Party politics were relatively inactive during the period. However, the consolidation of the Moderate and Nationalistic Leftist groups into a single “Socialist Labor Party” under Lyuh and supporting the Coalition Committee, continued. By this collection [consolidation] it is interesting to note that Professor Paik Nam Un, Chairman of the new Democratic Party, and Kang Jin, Chairman of the Dissident Communist Party (the cleansed People’s Party as the third component of the merger), went to Pyongyang on the 18th possibly to get the approval of their action from the north Korean Democrat Kim II Sawng and Kim Doo Bong, who are said by Lyuh, Woon Hyung, to be nationalistic-minded and opposed to the subversive anti-American Communist[s] represented by Pak Heun Yung in the south and Kim Moo Chong in the north.
Following his discharge from the hospital, Lyuh again took refuge from positive action at a country retreat, taking part in the Korean American conference only by proxy (he however attended the conference for the first time on November 8). Reports were apparent that a political group was gathering around Doctor Kimm, Chief of Coalition Committee supporters, but there was no concrete evidence of this. The Committee, however, is unmistakably developing into a group of personalities of the same mind on national affairs which might be the nucleus of a strong new party, and this mind would seem to be definitely left of center. Desertions from the Rightist Hankook Democratic Party continued, 54 officials having resigned en bloc on the 22nd.
The prosecution of the Communist Party counterfeiting case rested its case on the 21st, demanding life imprisonment for four and long prison terms for six defendants.
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