The Korean War, 70Years Ago,The Morning News, Danville PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
12 August – 18 August 1951
The Morning News, Danville PA
A breakthrough at week’s end?
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A three-day pitched battle for high ground raged on the eastern Korea front Wednesday with Communist troops regaining possession of a disputed hill. The action near Kaesong was the most violent of the day along the front. Small-scale clashes between patrols and sporadic artillery bursts broke out on the western and central fronts. The Communist radio claimed that Red Army units had wiped out more than 2,000 troops, most of them Americans, in five days beginning 1 August. This appeared to be yet another gross exaggeration of Allied losses. US casualties had increased by 320 since the last week’s summary, the lowest increase since the first summary was issued the past August.
On Tuesday, Allied and Communist armistice teams adjourned their 34th conference after 2 hours and 40 minutes and agreed to meet on Wednesday. There was no indication of progress on the knotty issue of a demilitarized buffer zone which had deadlocked the conference in 13 previous sessions. The Reds flatly turned down an Allied invitation to propose any adjustments in the UN demand for a buffer zone based on the present battle line, most of which lay north of the 38th Parallel. Instead, the Reds insisted that the UN truce team discuss the Communist demand for a demarcation line along the Parallel, the old boundary between South and North Korea.
The next day brought no more progress. The meeting opened on a sour note for the Reds: The chief Allied delegate warned the Communist delegation that their supply vehicles were open to attack unless the Allied command was informed in advance of routes and times. In a second letter, he replied to charges that Allied planes violated the Kaesong neutrality zone. It said the Reds would have to provide documentary evidence before “a re-examination of the problem would be made.” General Ridgway also made remarks to correspondents in Tokyo. He flatly rejected the Communist demand for the buffer zone, pointing out that twice previously overwhelming Communist offensives had driven the defenders back from the old political boundary. “How can anyone ask us to go back to the same line?” he asked. “We don’t intend to.”
On Thursday came word that the chief Communist negotiator was ready to back down from the stubborn Red buffer zone demands. He was quoted by Peiping [Beijing] radio as saying “We want to make the 38th Parallel the military line of demarcation but it is possible to adjust this line on the basis of terrain and mutual defense positions of the demilitarized zone if they are necessary and reasonable.” There was no immediate confirmation from Allied quarters of his remarks.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Danville Morning News)