"I Agree ..."

Not since the Korean truce talks opened at Kaesong in July, 1951 had Communist negotiators said, "I agree to your proposal," so often in such a short time. After several days of rapid progress last week, Rear Admiral John C. Daniel, chief of the U.N. liaison group, came triumphantly out of the wooden, Red-built conference house at Panmunjom, announcing that the U.N.-Communist agreement on exchange of sick & wounded prisoners had been signed. Photographers persuaded the admiral to perform his exit a second time, waving the agreement in his hand.*

The Reds agreed to return 605 U.N. prisoners--450 South Koreans, 120 Americans, 20 British, 15 other allied nationals (Canadians, Dutch, French, Greeks, Turks). The agreed figures represented about 5% of the announced total of prisoners held by each side. The exchange would start at Panmunjom on Monday, April 20. The U.N. would bring its returnees up to the exchange point at the rate of 500 a day, the Communists theirs at the rate of 100 a day.

General Clark's headquarters announced that reporters would be able to interview the released prisoners promptly. He was well aware that the world would be eager to hear what they had to say about conditions and treatment in the Communist stockades (from which the Red Cross has been barred), about the extent of "brainwashing" (Communist indoctrination, Red Chinese style), and about the situation of the presumably sound prisoners who will remain in enemy hands for at least a while longer./-

The Communists borrowed an old (but discarded) U.N. tactic by maintaining pressure on the battlefront. An enemy loudspeaker near Panmunjom blared: "The war is over. The hell with Eisenhower."

Meanwhile, North Korea's Nam II, who had not been seen in the flesh since October, dispatched a letter to the U.N. calling for full-scale resumption of truce talks. Nam echoed Chou En-lai's line that 1) no Communist prisoners are really unwilling to accept a return to Communist control; 2) if some seem unwilling, because of "intimidation and oppression," they should be put in custody of a "neutral" country pending final disposition. There was no doubt that this vague proposal could lead to difficulties--if the Communists wanted it to. The basic question was whether they want to end the fighting in Korea. If they do, the difficulties would disappear.

*Admiral Daniel signed six copies of the agreement--two each in English, Chinese, Korean--with six different fountain pens, gave the pens to Panmunjom oldtimers. /- A Communist correspondent at Panmunjom said that Major General William F. Dean, missing hero of Taejon, would not be returned in the first exchange, because he is in excellent health.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.