Milford chronicle., 1952-03-14
StaIen1ate
Ii Korea

THE tense and rigid deadlock
i at Panmuniom was UNDER
lined By the words Of a U.N. truce
negotiator this week.
Said Rear Adm. r. E. Libby:
"The truce talks are right back
where they were Dec. 18."
The issues tying up the dragging
truce talks ran from prisoners Of war
to the Red insistence on Russia s. a
neutral truce observer.
The U.N. Command argued with the
Communists whether $4,000 missing
Allied troops (mostly South Koreanl
actually exist Allied negotiators de.
manded the Reds account for the miss
ing men. It was believed they had
been incorporated by the Reds in the
North Korean army.
Value Of Talks
On the truce supervision issue Red
staff officers said their demand that
Soviet Russia help supervise a truce
was firm and unshakeahle.o
U.N. negotiators wondered about
the value Of continuing discussions at
Panmunjom.
Outside Korea, the Soviet bloc put
its major propaganda agencies to
work spreading over the world q
charge that the United States has
started waging germ warfare in the
Korean war.
Denials from Gen. Matthew B
Ridgway's headquarters were ignored.
In Washington, State Department
officials said the Communist world is
playing to the limit the accusation
that the American command has er1-
barked on a systematic attempt TO
wipe out the North Korean people
with insects carrying plague and
cholera.
In Tokyo, U. S. officials thought the
Red charges indicated North Korea
was in the grip of a full-blown epi-
demic. This was confirmed later in
reports by the Chinese Red radio in
Peiping and in Moscow where Soviet
newspapers announced drastic meas
ures were being taken in North Korea
against plague epidemic.
InOcuIatiOns Ordered
Pravda published Tass dispatch
from Pyongyang, North Korean capi-
tai, saying special order of the war
committee Of the North Korean gov
ernment had ordered all Of North
Korea's armed forces and civilian
population to be inoculated against
the plague. The order was signed hy
Kim II Sung.
A general war on rats and other
rodents, said to be carriers Of bubonic
plague, was ordered. The North Ko-
rean order again blamed the epidemic
on American meteorological war.
fare"
In the meantime, Communist propa.
gandists dropped a hint that Allied
prisoners of war may be exposed Il
the epidemic.
The Peiping radio, in a broadcas
heard IN San Francisco, said O83
odd United Nations prisoners OF wa
will have to take their chances viii
the rest of the Korean village dwell.
ers in the horrors Of a plague epi.
demic."
AAAC QulbCu NdkAOlla Ia0AO GOULluuC0
to deny the meteorological warfare
charges as absurd and said the Reds
were merely trying to blame the
Allies for an epidemic Of natural
causes.
Patrol Clashes
In the war, there were sharp patrol
clashes, and some encounters with
units of company size.
u. S. Fifth Air Force fighter.
bombers kept up their attacks on
Communist rail lines in North Korea
F-S6 Sabre jets patroled northwestern
Korea.
Red airmen continued 70 stay pretty
high in the air. The Reds have 600 ol
more MIG-15 fighters in the theater
They roam the upper attitudes ovel
the 100-mile-Wide battle zone in grea
numbers. Only rarely despite the ad
vaptages Of attack from above-dl
they descend to the fight level of thl
F-86 Sabrejet or other United Notion
aircraft.
In Pusan, South Korea, a brighte
side Of the long, dreary war came {
light this week. The only Russiai
J known to be held by United Nation
forces in Korea, attractive Lubov N
Dimova, said she wants to come
the United States and marry q col