Izvestia, April 16, 1948
Pyongyang, April 14 (tass). A popular movement is spreading throughout the country against holding separate elections in Southern Korea, as designated by the American military command for May 10, with the cooperation of the so-called United Nations Organization (UNO) Commission on Korea. Korean democratic opinion views these elections as an attempt to consolidate the existing temporary partition of Korea, and to delay unification and the rebirth of independence, thus converting Southern Korea into a United States colony.
The political parties and social organizations of Northern Korea have published an appeal to the parties and organizations of Southern Korea that are expressing opposition to separate elections and the formation of a puppet government in Southern Korea.
This appeal states that the United States policy, aimed at partitioning Korea, continues. It has now reached a most dangerous stage, threatening the sovereign integrity and independent national existence of the Korean people.
“By United States decree,” as the appeal further states, “preparations are being made to hold separate elections for the so-called ‘All-National Government’ in Southern Korea. What will the creation of a separate government by the Americans in the southern part of our country lead to? It will bury the best hopes and expectations of the Korean people for the speediest possible unification of Korea into a single, independent, democratic state. It will lead to an artificial division of our country into two parts, and to an economic and political rift between us. It will cause irreparable damage to the inherent vital interests of the Korean people.
“Grave danger is hanging over our country. The American military command, under cover of the UN Commission, which was created without the participation of our people and without consideration for our opinions and interests, intends to act out the election comedy and to form a government of reactionary and pro-Japanese elements, subservient to United States ruling circles. Behind the screen of the aforementioned Commission, American imperialists are crassly intervening in Korean domestic affairs, throttling national aspirations for freedom and independence and attempting to saddle upon the Korean people a new yoke of colonial slavery.”
It is stated that the holding of separate elections in the South under conditions of unrestrained police terror is a snare, aimed at creating a mongrel puppet government in Southern Korea. The appeal states further: “We are in favor of conducting all-Korean elections to a genuinely national parliament on the basis of universal, direct, and equal suffrage with secret ballot, after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Korea.”
The parties and organizations of Northern Korea call for the unification of all democratic forces among the people in Northern and Southern Korea in answer to the intrigues of reaction. With this purpose in view the leaders of the political parties and public organizations of Northern Korea, who signed this appeal, proposed to convene in April in the town of Pyongyang (Nothern Korea) a joint conference of representatives from all democratic parties and public organizations in Northern and Southern Korea who have come out against separate elections in the South. “At this conference,” according to the appeal, “we propose to discuss political conditions in the country and to elaborate a concrete plan to unify our efforts aimed, in the first place, at halting all reactionary attempts to split Korea into two parts; and, in the second place, to expedite the cause of Korean unification and the formation of a single, democratic Korean state—a member with equal rights in the family of freedom-loving peoples of the world.”
This appeal by the parties and organizations of Northern Korea was received with full approval by wide segments of the Korean people in the North as well as in the South of the country. Many parties and organizations in the South have already declared their willingness to participate in the Pyongyang Conference.
A report was published in the Seoul newspapers that the appeal by the parties and organizations of Northern Korea was examined in Seoul at a special conference of the political parties and public organizations included in the National Democratic Front of Southern Korea. In a resolution by the conference it was stated: “Once the UN Commission is driven from Korean territory, with the simultaneous withdrawal of the troops of both sides (i.e., American troops from Southern Korea and Soviet troops from Northern Korea), it will be imperative to elect, without foreign intervention and on the basis of universal, equal, and direct suffrage with secret ballot, a single democratic government that would defend the interests of the people, guarantee the rights of the people, and truly express the will of the people, thus creating a Democratic Korean People’s Republic.”
The same newspapers published a resolution by the Central Committee of the Labor Party in Southern Korea, in regard to preparations for the meeting in Pyongyang, in which it is stated: “The Central Committee of the Labor Party in Southern Korea approves of this decision and has resolved to participate in the conference and to apply its efforts to insure its success, and has thus sent its delegates to this conference.”
The appeal of the parties and organizations of Northern Korea and the approval of this appeal by the Korean people has embarrassed Southern Korean reactionaries and the American military authorities. The American command is taking measures to prevent the delegates of the parties and organizations of Southern Korea from participating in the Pyongyang Conference. They have placed reinforced units of the Southern Korean police force, as well as American troops, along the 38th parallel, which separates Southern and Northern Korea. All the roads and even the forest trails leading to the 38th parallel are strictly guarded by police and troops.
In this connection the Korean press has noted that the Soviet command has taken an entirely different stand in regard to the rights of Korean democratic parties to hold meetings and express their opinions. The Soviet command has responded to the request of the Korean parties by its consent to permit entry of Southern Korean delegates into Northern Korea.
A number of delegates from Southern Korea have already arrived in the town of Pyongyang to participate in the joint conference. They all report that feeling among the population of Southern Korea is against separate elections and in favor of boycotting these elections.
Fearing a mass boycott of the separate elections, the American command has, in the last few days, been strengthening police preparations for the elections. Police in civilian clothes, along with members of the terrorist organization, The Youth League of the North and West, are canvassing homes and compelling each inhabitant of Southern Korea to affix his personal seal to an electoral list as a sign of his willingness to participate in the elections. Those who refuse to affix their seals are being accused of being communist sympathizers and are subject to persecution.
The Seoul newspapers have been reporting the activization of terrorist group operations against the democratically minded population of Southern Korea.
New York, April 15 (tass). The Seouls correspondent for the newspaper New York Times reports that the American light-cruiser Topeka and the destroyers Brinkley and Bess arrived in Fusan (Southern Korea) on April 13.