Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XXII, Northeast Asia

318. Memorandum of Conversation⁰

Washington, November 25, 1963.

SUBJECT

• United States-Korean Relations

PARTICIPANTS

• United States
  • The President¹
  • Mr. Roger Hilsman, Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs
• Korea
  • Acting President Chung Hee Park²
  • Foreign Minister Young Shik Kim
  • Ambassador Yong Chul Kim

President Park expressed the condolences of the Korean people on the death of President Kennedy, but their satisfaction that a man of President Johnson’s stature had succeeded him.

President Johnson thanked the Korean President and stressed the regard of the American people for Korea and the continuity of United States foreign policy.

President Johnson noted United States pleasure at the fulfillment of the military junta’s pledge to return to civilian rule and the moderation marking the recent elections in Korea.³

President Johnson mentioned our pleasure at indications that the negotiations for normalization of relations between Korea and Japan had been progressing and expressed the hope that the completion of elections in both Japan and Korea would set the stage for a rapid and successful completion of the negotiations.⁴

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL KOR-US. Confidential. Drafted by Hilsman and approved by the White House on December 2. The meeting was held at the President’s reception at the State Department.
1. Lyndon B. Johnson. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22.
2. Pak Chung-hui was Acting President until his inauguration on December 17.
3. In telegram 470 to Seoul, the Department of State cabled an account of the Johnson-Pak conversation based on this memorandum. The Department thought that Korean journalists might have been given a “somewhat distorted account” by the Supreme Council Spokesman Yi Hu-rak. The Department asked for a summary of ROK press coverage. (Department of State, Central Files, POL 1 S KOR-US) According to telegram 742 from Seoul, November 27, the Johnson-Pak talk was reported prominently by all Seoul newspapers. The Korea Times and Hankik Ilbo carried accounts based on a Korean Embassy source, which stated that President Johnson had pledged renewed and strengthened cooperation between the ROK and the United States and had praised the October 15 presidential election as being democratic. Johnson also assured Pak of U.S. cooperation in matters of mutual interest. The Korean Republic, the government newspaper, claimed that Pak had received assurances from President Johnson that the United States would continue its policies of military and economic support. (Ibid.)
4. On November 26 Rusk discussed normalization of Japanese-Korean relations with Japanese Prime Minister Ikeda and Foreign Minister Ohira, both in Washington for President Kennedy’s funeral. Rusk suggested joint utilization of fisheries resources; Ohira thought the fisheries issue capable of solution if the Koreans were willing. (Memorandum of conversation, November 26; ibid., POL JAP-US)