366. Editorial Note
On August 12, 1965, U.S. Government officials responsible for East Asian Affairs met to discuss the problem of opposition in the Republic of Korea National Assembly to ratification of a normalization treaty between Japan and Korea. The officials agreed that “the primary source of opposition to ratification of the normalization treaty with Japan lies in the 65 seats held by the People’s Party in the 175 delegate ROK National Assembly.” They also noted that this opposition “compares with the pro-government Democratic Republican Party’s total of 110 seats.” The officials identified the need to prevent the “People’s Party from paralyzing National Assembly procedures and from increasing opposition sentiment in the population.” The People’s Party was divided roughly into those moderately opposed to the treaty and hard-liners unalterably opposed to the treaty. The officials agreed that the principal hazard to treaty ratification was resignation in bloc of the People’s Party members from the National Assembly, that would force an election prior to Assembly consideration. The officials then discussed in detail actions that the United States was taking and could take “to diminish the number of fanatics and to dampen the opposition of the moderates.” (Memorandum from Stuart to Hughes, Denny, and Evans, August 13, [text not declassified]; Department of State, INR/IL Historical Files, Country Files, East Asia and the Pacific General File, 1965 Weekly Far East Meetings, July to December)