SOVIET FILES SHOW STALIN'S OK LED TO KOREAN WAR

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 14, 1993                   TAG: 9301140137
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short
SOVIET FILES SHOW STALIN'S OK LED TO KOREAN WAR
Two American historians said Wednesday they have found proof in newly opened Soviet archives that Josef Stalin approved the North Korean attack that began the Korean War in 1950.
Western historians have long suspected that the Soviet dictator authorized the invasion.
Kathryn Weathersby of Florida State University and David Holloway of Stanford University said the proof came in a newly declassified report prepared for Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1966.
The report says Stalin gave North Korean leader Kim Il Sung permission for the invasion in March and April 1950. Soviet advisers helped to draft the battle plans, and Stalin "gave orders that all of Kim's desires for weapons and equipment should be met quickly," Holloway said.
Kim then obtained Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung's approval, according to the report.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB