South of the Border

In the rolling green hills of central Korea, a party of U.S. soldiers and correspondents stopped beside a weathered wooden post. On the post was stenciled in orange paint "U.S. 47." "That's Marker 47," said a G.I. "Over the hill there's another one. That's all there is to the 38th parallel. Just a few posts."

It was not quite all: a thousand yards up the road was a Russian outpost. Through field glasses, the Americans watched the Russians watching them through glasses of their own. As the U.S. party waited in the hot sun, some Russians fired a few quick bursts from an automatic weapon. Some of the Americans flexed for a dive to cover. Then they checked: this was only target practice.

Soon the little gasoline-driven railway coach from the North Korea capital, Pyongyang, pulled up on the Russian side of the border. Russian-trained soldiers of the "Korean Peoples Army" bustled around, escorted two elderly Koreans to ward Marker 47. They were 74-year-old Kim Koo, former chief of the Korean government in exile, and 66-year-old Dr. Kimm Kiu Sic. Alone of South Korean political leaders, they had accepted a Communist invitation to go to Pyongyang. The subject for discussion: how to unify Korea.

Said Dr. Kimm: "I've come back feeling very much encouraged ..." Mr. Kim still feared that U.N.-sponsored elections in South Korea would split the country permanently at the 38th parallel, but he said: "We promise not to encourage strife."

This was rather less than Pyongyang had hoped for from Kimm and Kim. The Reds were doing everything they could think of to disrupt this week's elections, which would lead to a free Korean government in the south. They had proclaimed a People's Republic of All Korea. Then, last week, Russia announced that "necessary arrangements" had been made to pull its troops out of Korea entirely "in order to make American troops withdraw from Korea simultaneously." The Russian-controlled North Korea radio broadcast an election-eve message to U.S. Zone Commander Lieut. General John R. Hodge: "You had better get out of Korea with your clothes packed . . . Why do you make such a valuable effort at the expense of your nervous system?"

Nonetheless, South Koreans went to the polls this week. U.S. occupation authorities encouraged a big turnout by dropping don't-forget-to-vote leaflets from planes. Most were expected to cast their votes for the National Association for the Rapid Realization of Korean Independence of Dr. Syngman Rhee. His party stood for a unified Korea--but not for unification a la Pyongyang.

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