No More 38th

South from Taejon last week fled a group of disreputable-looking Koreans in castoff clothes, armed with pocket pistols and .25s in shoulder holsters. They were cabinet members of the Republic of Korea on their way to join President Syngman Rhee in his hideout "White House" somewhere in Korea's far south. Taejon, South Korea's emergency capital since the fall of Seoul on June 28, was no longer a safe location for the cabinet, military men had decided.

South Korea's leaders, harassed and driven from pillar to post, were still not talking or acting like representatives of a beaten people. Rhee sees the war as a step in reuniting Korea--under Rhee. Said the benign, white-haired President to a TIME correspondent last week: "The Kremlin leaders destroyed the 38th parallel by invasion. Now it is gone. There is no reason now why we should observe the 38th parallel and no reason why the U.S. and the U.N. should observe it ... The cold war and all that is a waste of time. Finally force is the only argument."

Snapped Defense Minister Shin: "We kept to the parallel like the Great Wall of China. But what happened--they violated it. Now God is with us. Why stop at the 38th parallel?"

From former Home Affairs Minister Paik Sung Wook, a pious Buddhist who until last week ran South Korea's police force, came word of an omen which he felt blessed the republic's cause. The omen: the year 1950 in the Korean calendar is 4283. Reversed, 4283 reads 3824. In Korean 3824 is pronounced "Sampal isa" which also means "No more 38th."

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