TRUCE TALKS: New Try

In Korea last week the U.N. suddenly seemed desperately eager to break the deadlock in the truce talks. At the heart of the impasse is the question of repatriating North Korean and Chinese prisoners. The Communists want them all back. The U.N. has taken the position that no prisoner should be forced back to Red territory against his Will. Last week the U.N. senior delegate, Lieut. General William K. Harrison, brought out three new proposals, and asked the Communists to pick any one. Technically, the proposals stood firm on the U.N. position, but actually they came close to scrapping it:

1) All prisoners refusing repatriation would be taken to an "exchange point" and "freed from military control of both sides." They would then be free to remain with the U.N. or go to the Communists.

2) All prisoners refusing repatriation would be re-screened by a commission of neutral nations and repatriated or not according to their choice.

3) All prisoners without exception would be taken to a demilitarized zone and then & there deemed "fully repatriated." Then they would be free to go with the Communists or with the U.N.

Just under the surface of these suggestions lay an unpleasant possibility: Communist and anti-Communist prisoners would be thrown together in some "demilitarized zone" where riots might break out and loyal Reds might try to carry off anti-Reds by trickery or force.

Nevertheless, North Korea's durable Nam II tentatively turned down the U.N. proposals, but he agreed to take ten days to think them over.