895.00/4–949: Airgram
The Special Representative in Korea ( Muccio ) to the Secretary of State
A–127. Defense Minister Sihn Sung Mo is now on Cheju Island at express request of President Rhee, with orders to remain until guerrillas have been wiped out and order restored. Previously, Sihn had been given similar instructions, when he was Minister of Home Affairs, but was called home in order to assume portfolio of defense. Just prior to his departure at the beginning of this week, he stated that the clean-up would be much easier now that he was working with Army assault forces instead of the less reliable and more timorous police. Actually, he said, the rebels were surrounded in their mountain strongholds, and could not hold out for much longer.
Fighting on Cheju has been sporadic for a long time. Pyongyang radio broadcasts have devoted long programs to the “celebration” of the one year’s anniversary of the “partisan” fighting on the island, which began on April 3 of last year. Similar broadcasts in Korean from Moscow and Khabarovsk have referred to the revolt as the forerunner of the widespread armed resistance which is destined to sweep the country as soon as American troops have been withdrawn.
It is clear from the nature of the propaganda emanating from the Soviet-controlled radio that Cheju Island has been chosen as the spot for a major Soviet effort to sow confusion and terror in southern Korea. This has been accompanied by a continuing and similar operation on the land mass of the peninsula just north of the island, in the provinces of South Cholla and South Kyongsang. With such conditions deep in the rear areas of the Republic, President Rhee has been forced to take the decision to stamp out unrest and insecurity, so that the defense forces on the 38th parallel should not be lured away and dissipated in the internecine struggle which the Communists have hoped to make a permanent facet of the Korean scene.
It seems obvious that Soviet agents are being filtered into Cheju without great difficulty. Minister Sihn states that most of them arrived by small fishing boats from North Korea. While the Korean Coast Guard is endeavoring to patrol the coast of the island, says Sihn, it cannot possibly, with its present small complement of ships, maintain a tight blockade. While it has been a subject for some argument between the Prime Minister and Minister Sihn, and particularly in debates on the floor of the House, there have been persistent reports of Soviet ships and submarines around the island.
[Page 984]Photographs of operations on Cheju indicate unusual sadistic propensities on the part of both Government and guerrilla forces. Signal atrocities have been reported, indicating mass massacre of village populations, including women and children, accompanied by widespread looting and arson. In some cases the Army has been guilty of revenge operations against guerrillas which have brought down vengeance on unarmed villagers.
A Pyongyang broadcast of last Sunday was singularly revealing as to the direct interest of the puppet People’s Republic in the fighting on Cheju. Textually, the following was stated:
“Furthermore, they (the island guerrillas) are encouraged in their struggle by the fact that, under Premier Kim II Sung, a sound democratic base has been built in the northern half of the Republic, and there is the strong Soviet Union behind us (sic). Also, the Cheju Islanders have a powerful people’s coalition front.
“The activities of the armed guerrillas on Cheju Island became intensified following the formation of the Central Government of the Republic (of North Korea).”
- Received in the Department of State on April 18.↩