Due to obstructionism by the Russian members of the
Commission, it failed to achieve any useful accomplish-
‘ments. The United States then referred the impasse to
the United Nations General Assembly, which resolved
that a Provisional Government should be formed by the
Korean people themselves, and created a Special Com-
mission to expedite and facilitate the establishment of
such a government.

The Soviet Russians remained adamantly obstructive.
They not only refused to discuss the matter with the
United Nations Commission, but refused to permit the
entry of the Commission into'the northern part of Korea

and whén.members of the Commission appeared-at.the.

thirty-eighth parallel they were turned back at bayonet
point.

The United Nations Commission finally recommended
that national elections should be held in that part of
Korea accessible to the Commission (which meant the
territory now constituting the Republic of Korea), and
following acceptance of this recommendation by the
United Nations General Assembly national elections were
held which elected a Constituent Assembly to formulate
a Constitution for the new nation.

In July, 1948, the Constitution was approved, and the
National Assembly elected as the Republic’s first Presi-
dent Dr. Sygman Rhee. He was inaugurated on July
24, and the Republic of Korea officially became an in-
dependent nation on August 15, 1948.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Russian Government had es-
tablished a puppet Communist regime in the northern
half of the peninsula under their control.

The ‘First Republic’

When Dr. Rhee returned - to Korea after an absence
of many years he was widely known and revered as a

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