Editorial Note
On December 14, 1952, Foreign Minister Chou En-lai, on behalf of the People’s Republic of China, rejected the United Nations General Assembly resolution of December 3, which had been transmitted to his government by Pearson on December 5. Three days later, the Foreign Minister of North Korea also rejected the resolution. Both replies followed similar arguments: the resolution had been adopted without the participation of China or North Korea; there were no legitimate Chinese or Korean prisoners of war held by the United Nations who refused to return home; and the plan by which the United Nations had the final authority to appoint an umpire in the process of disposing of nonrepatriated prisoners was a ploy to facilitate the United States scheme for forced retention of prisoners. In their communications, the Communist Foreign Ministers supported the proposals put forward by the Soviet Union for an immediate cease-fire and referral of the prisoner of war question to a political commission yet to be established. See the report to the General Assembly by the President of the Assembly, December 20, 1952, United Nations document A/2354.