Office of the Historian

396.1–GE/4–554

Memorandum of Conversation, by Noel Hemmendinger of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs

secret
[Washington,] April 5, 1954.

Subject:

  • ROK Participation in Planning for Korean Political Conference

Participants:

  • Ambassador You Chan Yang, Korean Embassy
  • Philip Han, Counselor, Korean Embassy
  • Walter S. Robertson, Assistant Secretary, FE
  • Noel Hemmendinger, NA

Mr. Robertson expressed regret that there was no representative of the ROK present to participate in the consultations with respect to the line to be taken at the Korean Political Conference. He said he could not understand the public position of the ROK in this matter. Mr. Dulles had won a great diplomatic battle in Berlin in getting agreement on a conference which put the aggressors in Korea on one side and the defenders of Korea on the other. This was the kind of conference, with no neutrals present, on which the ROK had insisted. The USSR was not a co-sponsor of the conference, but a sponsor of the Communist side. It issued invitations only to them.

Ambassador Yang said that his government had serious misgivings about the conference. Mr. Robertson said that it was natural for Korea to have misgivings about the future, but that the refusal to consult with its friends was adverse to Korea’s interests and only helped the Communists.

Ambassador Yang referred to the desire of the Korean Government that consultations take place in Korea and said he understood from news reports that the U.S. was consulting in other capitals in Europe. [Page 70] Mr. Robertson stated that this was untrue and suggested that the Korean Embassy look to him for information on matters of this character rather than to the newspapers. He pointed out that the Secretary had flown to Seoul in the past to consult with President Rhee, and that given the enormous responsibilities which the Secretary was bearing for problems the world over and the necessity to consult with many other countries, it was only reasonable to ask the ROK to consult with this Government in Washington.

Ambassador Yang said that he would telegraph his Government on this matter promptly.