The Korean Question in the United Nations : ROK's Foreign Policy for Peace and Unification

Abstract

The dicision of Korea, initially undertaken for the purpose of facilitating the surrender of the Japanese forces in the aftermath of the Second World War, has continued as a result of the inability of the Soviet Union and the United States to agree on conditions for unification. Division has been further hardened by the establishment of two contending Korean governments, another result of the great power of the opportunity for independence under a single government. In 1946 when the Joint Commission of the American and Soviet Commands in Korea reached as impasse in its efforts to secure Korean independence, the United States decided to refer the problem to the United Nations. On September 17,1947, the United States notified the Soviet Union in an official letter(AIBUR/85). of its plan to place the Korean question on the agenda of the second U.N. General Assembly and to include the matter of the independence of Korea on its agenda. The Soviet delegate, accusing the United States of breaking the Moscow Agreement, opposed the U.S. proposal. Despite that Soviet move, the General Committee of the General Assembly passed the U.S. proposal by a vote of twelve for and two against. The General Assembly then began its deliberations on the Korean question and adopted Resolution 112(Ⅱ) calling for the establishment of the U.N. Temporary Commission on Korea and general elections.