September 4,1956

Mr. Leopold Bossier
The International Committee of the Red Cross
Geneva, Switzerland
Dear Mr. Boissier
This Red Cross Chapter is at a loss to understand the attitudes and actions of the International Committee with regard to the Republic of Korean nationals in Japan and north Korea.
Your letter of August 15, suggesting a Geneva meeting, specifies that the matters involved received no publicity.
Yet widely publiched accounts indicate that the ICRC has already deeply involved itself with the Japanese and north Korean Red Cross. This involvement concerns the Republic of Korea and its nationals; yet neither the Government nor the Red Cross of the Republic of Korea has ever been consulted.
The Tokyo newspaper Mainichi of August 18 quoted the Japanese Red Cross to the effect that Japan, north Korea, and the ICRC had agreed on a "Master Formula" for the reciprocal release and repatriation of all detained persons in both Koreans including repatriations of Koreans in Japan to either south or north Korea ". Dispatch of your August 15 letter was even mentioned by implication, although the date was erroneously given as 10 August.
Now the ICRC suggests that we attend a meeting where three of the four parties are going to present a fait accompli program that they are already agreed upon.
First of all, let. us examine the issues involved, and the position of the korean National Red Cross.
With regard to the repatriation of any Korean from Japan to north korea, these are the basic consideration;
1. All Koreans residing in Japan are nationals of the Republic of korea and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Japan has previously never questioned this.
2. The Republic of Korea is the sole widely recognized sovereignty on Korean soil. It is recognized by the United Nations and most of the sovereign nations of the world. North korea is recognized only by the communist bloc, and remains under indictment by the United Nations for international aggression.
3. Japan has agreed, on countless occasions, that Koreans in that country as of August 15, 1945, have every right to remain there as long as they wish. Under those agreement, and the laws of common humanity, Japan has absolutely no right to send Koreans anywhere without the full consent of the Republic of Korea.
4. It became obvious, in Korea Japan negociations for the release of Japanese fishermen held at Pusan and Koreans held at Omura, that Japan has entered into a conspiracy with the Communists to red hereself of Koreans --- and confiscate their property - by sending them to the territory of an outlaw regime. Korea and Japan had reached full agreement on reciprocal release and repatriation - an agreement involving the Japanese Foreign Minister - when the Japanese Justics Ministry suddenly found dubious excuses for blocking the execution of the accord. Eight after the Japanese began their efforts to send 48 koreans nationals to north Korea as a "trial balloon" in an attempt to tend all or moat of the 600,000 Koreans nationals to a life of slavery under Communism. We greatly regret that the ICRC aided and abetted this conpiaracy despite our strong protests.
5. Japan 's efforts to deport Koreans has nothing to do with "free choice" of repatriation. Japan has freely permitted the exploitation of koreans residing there as tools in the communist cause. Above all, the Japanese seek to get rid of the Koreans and take over their property. Japan knows that the Republic of Korea will never accept the repatriation of Koreans legally in Japan unless the Government of Japan pays them fair value for property honestly acquired. That is why Japan has turned to north Korea as a dumping ground for legal residents that it wants to get rid of cheaply.
6. That ICRC has absolutely no legitimate jurisdiction in thiscase, and has violated the spirit and the letter of the Charter by interfering. Those involved are not stateless persons. They all are nationale of the Republic of Korea, and no international, right to travel anywhere except under the passport of this country.
7. If the ICRC continues with its present policy, especially without consulting the country most vitally affected, it is violating its own tenets and destroying its humanitarian usefulness.
8. If the ICRC were to investigate this case thoroughly and fairly, it would find any dispatch of Korean nationals to Communist north Korea an act in violation of every principle of human policies.
With regard to ▣...▣ atr▣ation of south koreans to north Korea or north Koreans to south Korea, these are the basic consideration:
1. During the shooting phase of the Korean War, the Communists kidnapped to the north more than 320.000 nationals of the Republic of Korea. These included many civic, social, and cultural leaders. Under terms of the Armistice Agreement of 1953, the north koreans agreed to the free return of those who had been abducted. Lut, in subsequent repatriation proceedings, the north Koreans returned only handful of missionaries and foreign nationals.
2. North korea remains under legal obligation to return all of those kidnapped. But having failed to honor a single clause of the Armistice Agreement, the Communists apparently can not be persuaded by the ICRC or anyone else to repatriate those who were as cruelly taken away from their homes and families ,and forced into life of slavery.
3. The Republic of Korea has absolutely no inhabitants wish any with to go to the Communist north. This was proved during a past Armistice registration period observed by the United Nations Command. It does not really require proof of any sort. Before the korean War, during it, and since the Armistice, millions of Koreans have fled to the south - at the risk of their lives - to escape Communist slavery. North Korea lost at least half of ita population in this voluntary exodus.
4. Role of the ICRC should be to continue to seek to ,persuade north Korea to release those it kidnapped - not only in the interests of humanitarianism, but in observance of the solemn pledges of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
5. Instead, it appears that the ICRC is being deceived into becoming a party to a north Korea n plot to get back at least some of these who sacrificed everything by their lives to come to freedom in the south.
Under these circumstances, you will be able to understand that this Chapter cannot participate in the suggested meeting with the ICRC and the Japan and north Korean Societies. To do so would be to desert the principles for which the Red Cross stands, and to step into a trap that has been set to take away the basic human rights of Korean citizens.
We urge that the ICRC live up to its avowed purposes, examine the problems of Korean nationals objectively and fairly, and then devise means of seeking true justice for these Koreans who presently are being inhumanely treated by both Japan and north Korea. As always, the Korean National Red Cross pledges its facilities and its utmost cooperation in any such attempt to secure justice for those of our people have had more than their fair share of inequity and of man's inhumanity to man.
Sincerely yours,
Chang Whan Sohn, M.D.
President,
Korean National Red Cross