CEASE-FIRE: Curtains for Kaesong?

• Share

After two contentious, fruitless months on history's stage, the ancient, battle-scarred city of Kaesong last week seemed ready to be moved into the wings. There was still a chance that the cease-fire talks, broken off by the Reds, might be picked up again—but in all probability not at Kaesong.

The stream of Communist invective and charges of U.N. truce violations continued last week without letup. The Peking radio frankly admitted what the free world had suspected for weeks—that the breakdown at Kaesong was closely linked to the signing of the Japanese treaty (see INTERNATIONAL). The Reds had obviously hoped to use Korea as an instrument of blackmail at San Francisco. General Ridgway seized an obvious last chance to get the truce talks on the track again and formally suggested to the Reds that the conference site be moved to another location. In a message to Kim II Sung and Peng Teh-huai, Ridgway proposed that choice of a new site be discussed by liaison officers, and added: "Further use of . . . Kaesong will inevitably result in additional interruptions . . . and further delays . . ."