740.00119 Control (Korea)/4–3047: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in the Soviet Union 62
1094. Please deliver to the Foreign Minister following note in reply to Mr. Molotov’s letter of Apr 19 re Korea:
“Dear Mr. Molotov: I have considered your letter of Apr 19, 1947 in which you accept our proposal to reconvene the US–USSR Joint Commission and suggest that the Commission resume its work on May 20 of this year. I have also noted your statement that resumption of the Commission’s work shall be ‘on the basis of an exact execution of the Moscow Agreement on Korea’.
In order to avoid any future misunderstanding with respect to the phrase ‘exact execution’ I wish to make clear my interpretation of the phrase. In my letter to you of Apr 8 I stated that the Joint Commission should be charged with expediting ‘its work under the terms of the Moscow Agreement on a basis of respect for the democratic right of freedom of opinion.’ In making this statement I had and have in mind the well-known position of the Govt of the United States that Korean representatives of democratic parties and social organizations shall not be excluded from consultation with the Commission on the formation of a provisional Korean govt because of opinions they might hold or may have expressed in the past concerning the future govt of their country, provided they are prepared to cooperate with the Commission.
You mention three points which the Soviet Govt believes to be of primary importance in its policy towards Korea. Your statement concerning the importance of establishing a provisional democratic Korean Govt on the basis of wide-scale participation of Korean democratic parties and social organizations has from the beginning been accepted by the United States Govt as basic to its policy of assisting in the establishment of a self-governing sovereign Korea, independent of foreign control and eligible for membership in the United Nations.
I interpret your second point with respect to the establishment of ‘democratic authority agencies’ throughout Korea as referring to local, [Page 639] provincial and national govt agencies chosen, as you state, by means of free elections on the basis of a general and equal electoral right.
I welcome the assurance contained in your third point with regard to the importance you attach to aiding in the restoration of Korea as an independent democratic state and in the development of its national economy and national culture. The United States Government has under consideration a constructive program for the rehabilitation of the economy of Korea and for its educational and political development.
In order that I may direct the United States Commander in Korea to make preparations for opening the sessions of the Joint Commission in Seoul on May 20, 1947, may I receive an early confirmation that we are mutually agreed as to the basis on which the Commission shall resume its important work?
I am furnishing copies of this letter to the Govts of China and the United Kingdom.
Please accept, Mr. Minister, assurance of my highest esteem.”
In order that Dept can release note to press at proper time, inform when delivered.63
- Repeated as telegram 509 to Nanking and 1862 to London, with the additional sentence: “Please give copy of above note to the Foreign Office”; repeated as telegram 74 to Seoul “for information”.↩
- The note, delayed in transit, was delivered to the Soviet Foreign Office at 12:50 p.m., May 2 (740.00119 Control (Korea)/5–247).↩