SOUTH KOREA: Account Rendered

In the aftermath of war, when allies are no longer in arms against the common peril, there arises the unpleasant problem of which ally must pay the other for services rendered. After World War I. the canard spread that France had even collected rent for the use of trenches on its soil. Last week South Korea's President Syngman Rhee went just as far, if not much farther, in a bill for $684,600,000 that he sent to the U.N. Command, i.e., to the U.S.. which foots almost all the bills.

The U.S. spent $22 billion and took 140,000 casualties in the Korean war. Since war's end. the U.S. has contributed another $2 billion to rehabilitate South Korea and bolster its army. This was not enough for Syngman Rhee, whose mismanaged economy is in trouble and in need of money. His bill, submitted in infinite, frequently faulty detail, asks $471.7 million for U.N. use of land during the Korean war.

Next biggest item is building rent ($62 million), although Korea has more U.N.-built building space (some 20 million sq. ft. of it) than the U.N. Command is being asked to pay for. Rhee asks $60.8 million for transportation, although the U.N. has supplied his rickety rail system with 45 locomotives, 1,696 pieces of rolling stock, enough rails, switches and crossties for 1,811 miles of track. The U.N. has also built 2,138 miles of Korean highway, 525 bridges. Though Rhee asks $38.6 million for electricity, U.N. generating barges at Pusan and Inchon pump unmetered quantities of electricity into Korean homes and factories, at least double the army's consumption.

If Syngman Rhee persists in pressing his exorbitant claims, he will be slapped right back with a bill for utilities supplied by the U.S.