Big Brother's Help

On their side of the Asian perimeter, the Communists were busily promising to restore and refortify battered North Korea--plainly showing that they have no intention of yielding it to a unified all-Korean government at the peace table. Last September Russia granted $250 million towards North Korea's "recovery.?' Last week Red China agreed to send $317 million in "coal, cloth, cotton, grain, building materials, communications equipment, metal products, machinery, agricultural tools, fishing boats, paper and other daily necessities of the people." Red China also agreed to-cancel North Korea's war debts incurred up to next Jan. 1 (apparently a way of saying that North Koreans must pay occupation costs after that) and to "facilitate civil air transport between the Soviet Union and Korea" by letting a Soviet-Korean airline cross her territory. On hand in Peking for the signing of this agreement, besides Mao Tse-tung and North Korea's Premier Kim II Sung, was a Russian named V. V. Vaskov. V. V. Vaskov, the communique said, was "also taking part in the negotiations."

Those who look for friction between Mao and Malenkov regard North Korea, as well as Manchuria, as potential abrasives. The State Department's current reading is that many more interests unite the Communist rulers of the two big nations than divide them, and that China is not a satellite of the Soviet Union (like Bulgaria, Rumania, etc.) but a partner--a decidedly junior partner.

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