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GENERAL HEADQUARTERS FAR EAST COMMAND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SECTION, GENERAL STAFF TABLE OF CONTENTS NO. Selected Items for the Information of Commanders and Staff of the Far East Command DATE 2402 7 April 1949 # INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS **(5) NORTH KOREA** Korean troops who formerly served with CCF in Manchuria transferred to North Korea; augment PA units. **(6) CHEJU ISLAND** Island returning to normal; situation most quiet since 1 May 47. Government forces successful in combating rebels; armed rebels estimated at 250, backed by 1,000-1,500 sympathizers. Rebels lack ammunition; no outside support likely. # KOREA ## Military, Political, Economic, Social Situation, Press Review, Civil Intelligence, Miscellaneous Selected Items for the Information of Commanders and Staffs of the Far East Command No. 2402 ## MILITARY SITUATION **1. Cheju Island:** **a. Returning to Normal:** Cheju Island, 50 miles south of the Korean mainland, gradually is returning to normalcy after more than a year of bloody fighting which has seen the slaying of about 15,000 people and the razing of one-third of its homes. The last three weeks of March were the quietest days the island has known since 1 May 47. The current lull in rebel activities can be attributed largely to Col Yu Dai Hung, capable former officer in the Japanese Army and executive officer of the Korean Military Academy, who was sent to Cheju on 2 Mar as an over-all task force commander of the armed forces on the island. (a) **b. Activities:** Col Yu shifted troops from their billets in seacoast towns and sent them into the mountainous regions against the rebels; called a halt to indiscriminate slaying of residents of hill-country villages; and adopted an amnesty program, which was scheduled to terminate on 25 Mar. Government forces have killed 300 rebels or rebel sympathizers and have captured 1,500 prisoners since Col Yu arrived on the island. Also, one pistol and 22 rifles have been recovered. Armed rebels, who are estimated to number about 250, backed by 1,000-1,500 noncombatant sympathizers, have been harassed from one hiding place to another. Aside from the ambushing of one platoon of soldiers on 9 Mar, the rebels have been unable to counterattack or conduct raids on villages. (a) **c. Rebel Problems:** The lack of ammunition is the most pressing problem the guerrillas have at present. Captured and foraged food stocks are ample, and caves left behind by the Japanese make security and housing no great problem. However, there is no ready source of ammunition. The rebels are believed to have less than 1,500 rounds of U.S. ammunition, and their only source of supply for U.S.-type weapons is stocks seized from the Republic's armed forces. Also, they may have sufficient supplies to reload 2,000 rounds of ammunition for Japanese rifles. Although rumors indicate that rebel forces have received logistic support by water from the mainland and from North Korea, there is no evidence to substantiate the reports. Constant patrolling by ships of the Korean Navy, aerial reconnaissance flights, and a tight ring of police around villages on the coastal plain reduce the possibility of outside support. (a) **d. Civilians Suffer:** As a result of cumulative rebel actions and countermeasures by the armed forces, there is a tragic amount of hardship and privation among the civilian populace of the island. An estimated one-fourth of the 300,000 islanders have been displaced from their razed villages and have moved to coastal areas. Food, clothing, and medicinal stocks are low, and only in the last two weeks of March have needed relief supplies from the mainland begun to arrive on the island in noticeable quantities. Housing materials, stone and mud, are in abundance all over the island. The food situation is, and will continue to be, a pressing problem. Farmers have been allowed to move approximately five miles inland to resume farming, but they are handicapped by the distances to their present dwellings and wanton destruction of draft animals by both rebels and the armed forces. (a) Source Comment: While the over-all picture looks bright, any cessation of activities on the part of Korean Army units probably will result in fresh outbreaks of terrorism, unless the 250 armed rebels are killed or captured or their arms confiscated. Present plans of cleaning out the rebels entirely before the middle of April appear optimistic. One captured rebel leader has admitted that present plans of the rebels call for them to keep under cover until the soldiers are removed, at which time raiding activities will be resumed. Col YU is attempting to ferret the rebels from their hiding places by direct operations, but the rebels have continued moving and have suspended their activities. (a)