All is not well with the South Korean government. Syngman Rhee and his National Society Party are rapidly losing whatever public support they once had. The resignation of government leaders, including the vice president, during the last month may mean a complete change of leadership and policy for the Korean people.

It is difficult to learn what is going on in Pusan, the South Korean capital. Censorship imposed by Rhee since his election in August, 1948, has been thorough. Few Koreans want to suffer from the reign of terror which may strike anyone who proclaims anti-Rhee views. Charges of corruption and "dictatorship" are not the only ones which opposition parties are continually throwing at the Rhee faction. The major complaint is that the government is ineffective and its leaders incompetent in solving Korean social and economic problems.

These problems are grave. Three million North Korean refugees have crossed, the 38th parallel and are a severe drain on the South Korean economy. Agricultural production is one-half of normal. No coal mines are in operation. Tungsten production (once a major source of revenue) has decreased to almost nothing. Some textile mills are humming, but their entire production goes to ROK troops. Inflation has raised the price of consumer goods to ten times last year's price.

If the war ends by a partitioning, Rhee will have to adjust the South Korean economy so that it can get along without its "better half"--North Korea. During their 40-year occupation, the Japanese made Korea into a prosperous satellite. North Korea became an industrial area, while the South was mostly agricultural. Since 1945 when an Allied military agreement established the partition, South Koreans have lacked sufficient consumer goods, water power, coal, and fertilizer.

The word "corrupt" is often applied to Rhee, yet his enemies never disclose specific examples of corruption. The nearest thing to proof appeared in a Reuters dispatch from Pusan on May 11. On that day, Vice President Lee resigned due to "big-scale embezzlement involving government officials and military officers."

Rhee's critics call him "reactionary" by citing the wealthy men and old nobility who support him. Most of the Rhee faction are septuagenarians; American-educated Rhee is 76, and Lee's age was reported as 83 when he resigned. Rhee is self-assured, stubborn, and dictatorial. He has been actively heading the Korean independence movement since 1919 when he was elected President of the Korean Republic in exile. (Korea was handed over to Japan as a bribe for recognition of American interests in the Philippines in 1905).

Communism is Rhee's worst enemy. He has reduced all issues into the one question of combating Communism. With the three million North Korean refugees came many Communist agents and organizers who have infiltrated into the army, police, schools, and government offices. When 11 Communist newspapers suddenly appeared, Rhee closed them. Before the war, when certain legislators petitioned the UN Korean Commission to remove all American military forces from the nation, Rhee summarily imprisoned them. From the comparative safety of the United States, critics of Rhee have been concerned over the absence of basic freedoms in Korea, but Rhee justifies his "martial law" an necessary with the battle line so near.

Rhee's dictatorial tactics are misleading. After a personal interview, a "Reporter" magazine writer asserts, "By both public acclaim and by moral conviction, he is a champion of democracy . . . I could not help wondering whether he might . . . be serving out his last year as a front for a clique of army and police officers . . . he showed many signs of his advanced years. Now, when his dream for a united Korea may be shattered by peace negotiations or by what he would consider an untimely end to the war with he Communists, he is determined to lay down the law for Korea's own good as he sees it."

There are many signs of liberalism in the structure of the Korean government. When elected, Rhee offered a 27-point program guaranteeing economic and social democracy as well as political democracy. The Assembly passed a land-reform act which provided for the sale of 90% of all landlord-owned farms to their tenants, who were to pay 20% of their annual crop for 15 years Rhee's democratic program was spelled out in the Korean constitution, and the land-reform act is now law. But these reforms have not been carried out because of the war, Rhee claims.

The Assembly is as ineffective as Rhee himself. Its members do not understand their own responsibilities and have little knowledge of parliamentary procedure. They spend most of their time wrangling with Rhee over insignificant issues, forcing major political and economic problems into the background.

Whether or not Rhee is corrupt and reactionary is not the main issue with the Korean voters. The major difficulty is that his government is impotent. Its naive, clumsy attempts to feed, clothe, and house the Korean people have failed. Such a leadership vacuum cannot last much longer. If Rhee and his faction bide their time until pro-Communist reformers are voted into office, then the objectives of the UN forces in Korea will have been lost.