740.00119 Control (Korea)/5–2347: Telegram
The Political Adviser in Korea (Langdon) to the Secretary of State
119. Cite Zpol 698. Herewith summary of 25th meeting Joint Commission 22 May, General Brown presiding, follows:
Text of decision No. 1 of last year’s proceedings81 dealing with Commission’s operating procedure was adopted with one additional [Page 650] provision for holding of open meetings by mutual agreement. Next item was our proposal to revise last year’s decision No. 3 “joint agreement on program of work”. We wished to delete items 3 and 4 of section 2 relating respectively to elaboration of a political platform and to recommendations for the personnel of the provisional government, substituting therefore a revised item reading as follows: “Study of existing governments North-South Korea with the view to the transfer to and assumption by the provisional government of the responsibility exercised by these existing governments and recommendations for the method of procurement of personnel for the provisional government”.
Soviets insisted on necessity of a political platform, wondering why we wanted to set it aside since it had been agreed upon last year. We stated that conditions had changed, that our idea was to incorporate essential features of political platform questionnaire in our questionnaire relating to structure and principles of organization of government, and that the questionnaires were not final decisions in themselves since they were intended to be annexes to the decision in consultation with parties which was never reached. As the point seemed unimportant we accepted the original text with the reservation that we would be free to revise the questionnaire when the time came to consider it. Likewise we accepted original item 4 reading “elaboration of recommendations for the personnel of the provisional government”.
To meet the purpose of our proposed item No. 3 cited above, Soviets offered a fifth point in the program of work reading “the method of assumption of power by the provisional government and the method of selecting personnel for the provisional government”. We accepted with understanding placed on record that no particular methods are envisioned at this time and that the final choice of methods would follow study and recommendations of the Joint Subcommission concerned. Commission then appointed Joint Subcommissioners as follows: Subcommission No. 1—conditions for and order of consultation with parties, Tounkin and Bunce; Subcommission No. 2—structure and principles of organization and political platform of Provisional Government, Generals Lebedeff and Weckerling; Subcommission No. 3—personnel and methods of assumption of power and selection of personnel, Balasanov and Joyner.
Atmosphere of first reconvened session was easy, and informal. Department no doubt noted in Shtikov’s bland address at opening ceremonies82 absence of fulminations against reactionaries or other name-calling characteristics of last year’s address, as well as emphasis on urgency of formation of provisional government. Insistence of Soviets [Page 651] on a political platform is a possible indication of later attempts to bind the provisional government to policies adopted in North Korea.