Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Far East and Australasia, Volume VII, Part 2

501.BB Korea/2–2449

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chargé of the American Mission in Korea (Drumright)¹

confidential

Seoul, February 23, 1949.

Participants:	President Rhee
	Dr. A. C. Bunce, Administrator of the ECA Program in Korea
	Mr. Drumright

During the course of an extended call on President Rhee the afternoon of February 22, 1949, in which the ECA program of Korea was the main topic of conversation, Mr. Drumright took the opportunity to bring up with President Rhee the question of relations between the Korean Government and the United Nations Commission on Korea, with particular reference to UNCOK contact with non-official Korean individuals and organizations. Mr. Drumright explained that he was taking up this subject in a personal capacity and that his aim was the betterment of relations between the Korean Government and UNCOK. Mr. Drumright then said he had been told by members of UNCOK that contact with Koreans of non-governmental status had been severely restricted, and that in fact Commission delegates had seen virtually no Koreans other than those with an official status. Mr. Drumright said that he could not vouch for the accuracy of the information supplied him, but if it were true he felt that it might give UNCOK wrong impressions of Korea and perhaps impair relations between the Korean Government and the Commission. Mr. Drumright said he wondered, therefore, whether the complaints adduced by UNCOK delegates could not in some way be eliminated.

President Rhee said that the Government of the Republic of Korea was still new and still in the process of organization. He said that the Government was beset by the widespread subversive activities of the Communist underground, and that the situation was still serious. President Rhee then went into a discourse of the opposition factions which culminated in the North–South conference in the spring of 1948.² He said that the activities of these factions did irreparable harm to the cause of Korean unity and he did not wish them repeated before the new Commission. He then suggested that certain opposition elements in South Korea would like to bring about a split in much the same way as it had occurred in 1948. He was therefore anxious, he said, to have the Commission avoid being pulled around by various political factions in opposition to the Government in South Korea. President Rhee also intimated that it would be no use trying to bring about any coalition between the Korean Government and the Communist faction in the North, pointing out the disastrous consequences of such attempts in China.

President Rhee said that it was not his intention that the UNCOK delegates be isolated from outside contact, however, and that the screening of visitors wishing to see the delegates had been adopted for their protection. If UNCOK did not desire such police protection, he went on, the Korean Government would be glad to have the police withdrawn.

Mr. Drumright said he realized that there was a real problem of police protection, as well as a problem of working out a satisfactory procedure so that Koreans of various kinds with legitimate reasons for seeing Commission delegates might be admitted. Mr. Drumright went on to say he had informally advised UNCOK delegates to observe closely conditions in South Korea, that it would be well if they went periodically to the National Assembly, if they had long consultations with Government officials, and if they were to travel throughout the South Korean provinces. Mr. Drumright added it was his opinion that the Republic of Korea really had nothing to hide from the Commission and that it would be much better all around if the Commission members could be given access to all sorts of people and given facilities for observation and consultation. Mr. Drumright said further he was of the opinion that the UN members were for the most part men of more than ordinary intelligence and that if given maximum facilities for observation and consultation they could be counted on to come up with accurate conclusions as to the situation in Korea.

President Rhee assured Mr. Drumright it was his wish that the UNCOK delegates be given every facility for observation and consultation within the domain of the Republic of Korea. Indeed the Commission was being invited to the National Assembly on the 23rd, and it would be given many other facilities for observation. His only concern, President Rhee repeated, was that members of the UNCOK not be misled by Communist elements, and that the impression not be given the Korean people that proposals made would tend to undermine the Government of the Republic of Korea, or give the Communists ammunition for their propaganda mill.³

1. Transmitted to the Department as an enclosure to despatch No. 94, from Seoul, dated February 24 and received in the Department on March 7.
2. The conference was held on April 22 and 23, 1948; see Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. vi, pp. 1162 ff.
3. The portion of the UNCOK report dealing with UNCOK’s relations with the Korean Government concerning contacts by UNCOK with individuals outside the Government is contained in U.N. document A/936, pp. 6–7.