Editorial Note
On October 9, General MacArthur broadcast the following message, directed to the North Korean Commander in Chief and his forces:
“In order that the decisions of the United Nations may be carried out with a minimum of further loss of life and destruction of property, [Page 914] I, as the United Nations Commander-in-Chief, for the last time call upon you and the forces under your command in whatever part of Korea situated, to lay down your arms and cease hostilities. And I call upon all north Koreans to cooperate fully with the United Nations in establishing a unified, independent and democratic government of Korea, assured that they will be treated justly and that the United Nations will act to relieve and rehabilitate all parts of a unified Korea. Unless immediate response is made by you in the name of the north Korean government, I shall at once proceed to take such military actions as may be necessary to enforce the decrees of the United Nations.” (Department of State Bulletin, November 13, 1950, page 763)
No official response was received from North Korea, but Premier Kim Il Sung, Commander in Chief of the People’s Army of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in a radio broadcast in Pyongyang on the morning of October 10, rejected it. (Appleman, South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu, page 609) See also the annex to the memorandum of conversation by Mr. Jessup, October 12, page 931.
Also on October 10, the Foreign Ministry of the People’s Republic of China issued a statement which was quoted as follows in a Department of State memorandum setting forth a diplomatic roundup of Chinese Communist intentions:
“The American war of invasion in Korea has been a serious menace to the security of China from its very start … The Chinese people cannot stand idly by with regard to such a serious situation created by the invasion of Korea by the United States and its accomplice countries and to the dangerous trend toward extending the war …
“The Chinese people firmly advocate a peaceful solution to the Korean problem and are firmly opposed to the extension of the Korean war by America and its accomplice countries. And they are even more firm in holding that aggressors must be answerable for all consequences resulting from their frantic acts in extending aggression.” (795.00/10–1250.)