5‧10 총선거와 제주도 폭동 / <남조선과도정부 활동> 제32호

UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES IN KOREA SOUTH KOREAN INTERIM GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES UNITED STATES ARMY MILITARY GOVERNMENT IN KOREA PREPARED BY NATIONAL ECONOMIC BOARD NO 32 MAY 948 SUMMARY 3. South Korea proved a parallel to Italy. A three-month communist campaign to sabotage the election, partly by propaganda but mostly by violence, failed miserably. Only in two districts on strife-torn Cheju Island was it impossible to hold valid elections. In the other 198 districts throughout South Korea, the communists had shot their bolt. Alert police and a temporarily- recruited body of citizens held disorders to a minimum. For the most part, the election was quiet, well-organized and efficiently carried out, according to American observers sent to all provinces. 16. The 38° parallel was an unhealthy place during May, with small-arms fire spitting across the line nearly every evening. Thirty-one incidents involving North Korean Constabulary were reported during the month, and Americans along the border drew more hostile fire than ever before. But the island province of Cheju, off the mainland's south coast, was the real hot spot, for there a virtual civil war was in progress. 17. Police and Constabulary, their appeals for peace rejected, moved in on guerrillas entrenched in mountain strongpoints. Crushing the rebellion was difficult, however; many of the night-riding rebel soldiers were peaceful farmers by day. The disorders broke out partly at the inspiration of communists opposing the South Korean election, and partly because of the islanders' long-smouldering resentment against despotic police and corrupt officials. Arthur G. Peterson ARTHUR G. PETERSON Chief, Statistics Division National Economic Board 4. Cheju Island was separated from Cholla-namdo in 1946 and given provincial status. Data on the population of Cheju-do for 1940 and 1944 have been separated from those of Cholla-namdo. SECTION 2 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS GENERAL 1. On 10 May, more than 91 per cent of the registrants, who represented 94 per cen [illegible] eligible voters in South Korea, participated in the first general election in Korean history. Almost half of the 198 men elected were avowed rightists. Elections in two of the three districts in Cheju-do were declared invalid and the date for re-electic was postponed indefinitely because of continuing disorder and violence. None of the Assembly members were registered as communists. The strongest rightist group in the new National Assembly was composed of members of the Hankook Demoratio Party, a povert and well-organized group. Most of the remaining members were registered as independents largely members of those moderate political parties which refused to participate in the separate election. Of this last group, political observers estimate that 50 have [illegible] leanings, while the remaining 35 are inclined toward the moderate right. Im- [illegible] under the election, the Hankook Democ[illegible] [illegible] the left-wing group and an [illegible] group of moderates and rightists began [illegible] for the affiliation of the [illegible] members of the Assembly. GENERAL ELECTION 4. By the middle of the month, complete returns from all provinces except Cheju were announced. Three candidates from Cheju-do were elected, but elections in Puk Chej: Gun A and B were judged invalid because of interference by communists and other groups. Elections in those two districts were postponed indefinitely. The 198 members of the National Assembly are listed below according to province. Average age of the assemblymen was 47, ranging from 28 to 74. Table 1 shows political party representation in the National Assembly, and Table 2 lists occupations. [illegible] 11. A team of [illegible] [illegible] and clerks was sent to Cheju-do to [illegible] trials in order to [illegible] [illegible] of cases arising out of the [illegible] Military Government [illegible] [illegible] members of the constabulary on Cheju-do be [illegible] by courts martial within the [illegible] tabulary, and not by civil courts. Attacks on Election and Government Workers 6. Four candidates for election were killed. Despite the fact that probably all candidates were threatened, few withdrew from the race. According to newspaper accounts, 15 election officials and 11 government employees also were killed. Attacks were made on the families and the property of many participating in the election. Frequently police reports read: "Home burned by mob after household effects were looted." When homes were attacked, the women as well as the men nearly always were beaten. Heretofore, few such attacks had been made except on wives and daughters of policemen, but in May the practice seemed to be spreading and the same ferocity was displayed against private individuals — both rightist and leftist. Attacks on Police 7. Many special police teams, each of 50 picked men, were given training in breaking up riots and dealing with those who fled to mountain hideouts. The Const[illegible] Guard Corps kept down some of the rowdyism, as the presence of men with cudgels every few feet along the streets leading to the polls was a deterrent to would-be bomb throwers. The charge was made, however, that the ranks of the guards in some places were infiltrated by left[illegible]. This would [illegible] in the case of Cholla-namdo, where [illegible] [illegible] were killed by [illegible] Guard Corpsmen armed with spears. During [illegible] ction period, [illegible] were attacked and with [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] number of policemen killed in May — 32 — was one less than [illegible] month the communists launched their [illegible] revolt and [illegible] The police had been ordered to shoot at [illegible] a riot [illegible] [illegible] death toll in May rose to [illegible] at least [illegible] is any previous month in 1948. Attack on [illegible] India 8. For the first time police reports told of a number of attacks on towns. Some of these attacks were on Cheju-do, where Japanese installations on Mt. Halla gave rioters natural fortifications. Some were in mountainous places in the southern part of the mainland, where a number of caves were used as hideouts for rioters. One account told of the police attempt to surround Chirisan, a mountain area 30 miles long and 30 miles wide, where 100 rioters were hiding. Stolen dynamite, guns and police uniforms were discovered in various caves. (A prisoner reported to the police that the current price of stolen police uniforms was 10,000 won.) A refreshing variation of the usual story was the case of villagers who turned out and roundly beat up their attackers. Election Day 9. During the 10 May voting, only 68 of the 13,407 election booths were attacked, 10 more than the number of attempts made against registration booths during the April registration period. Attacks usually were made with home-made [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] the election. [illegible] from Taegu, a police report on 9 May read: "All quiet in Taegu area. However, five people killed and communications not so good." A would-be bomb-maker blew up his own house and was arrested by the police. There was more trouble in the south, where the mountains offered hiding places for bands which swept down to kill a few picked enemies or bomb an election booth, which swept down to kill a few picked enemies or bomb an election booth, but in no large area were people actually kept from voting except in two districts of Cheju-do. The rioters had only the weapons they had captured or devised and a few arms left over from the Japanese. Stories of Russian arms and equipment, either on the mainland or on Cheju-do, apparently were newspaper rumor. No particular concentration of forces or communist plan was apparent. CHEJU-DO 14. Despite the appeal of the Korean Constabulary to the rebels to lay down their arms, and the despatch of a picked force of police to the island, the fighting on Cheju-do was intensified. The rebels lived in mountain caves, used Japanese equipment left over from the war, and were reported to be villagers by day and rebels by night. Stories were told of raided villages where there were found the bodies of hanged women, or women and children run through with spears. Tales of villages utterly wiped out kept coming in. Numbers of rightists and police were kidnapped, then hanged or beheaded. The most violent attacks on the police and election officials occurred 7-14 May. 15. The plan was adopted of isolating small areas and screening the populace. A Department of Internal Security report appearing in the Seoul Times on 4 June said that 3,126 persons were being held. The neutral Seoul Sin Mun (Seoul Daily News) on 29 May gave the number of casualties and kidnappings on Cheju-do as 600 since the outbreak of disturbances. Dr. Chough Pyong-ok, Director of National Police, on his return from an inspection trip to the island at the end of May, was quoted as reporting 64 policemen and 400 civilians on both sides as having been killed. 16. The rioters' demands were that the election be called off and that the police disarm, according to one newspaper story. Another added that the original trouble was [illegible] police [illegible] over the appointments of persons from other [illegible] police service, and the importation of young [illegible] of a [illegible] the [illegible] aid the police; the story went on to assert that rebels had trained for three months, that they took the police by surprise, and that they had Japanese machine guns. 17. Because it was impossible in most of Cheju-do to hold elections on 10 May, the date for voting in two of the province's three districts was indefinitely postponed. SOCIAL SECTION 1 PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE PREVENTIVE MEDICINE Communicable Diseases 3. On 25 May several cases of smallpox were reported among the constabulary on the island of Cheju. Fresh vaccine was sent by air the following day and no further cases developed.