Happy 65th anniversary

By Donald Kirk

Remember those initials UNC/MAC and NNSC for United Nations Command/Military Armistice Commission and Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission? It's difficult to believe these terms still exist 65 years after the signing of the truce that ended the Korean War on July 27, 1953.

Today, commanders of the UNC, the umbrella organization under which the South Koreans, Americans and troops from 15 other nations fought during the Korean war, will be at Panmunjom marking the anniversary. So will officers from what's left of the NNSC, formed when the armistice was signed to insure that everyone lived up to the deal, at least within the JSA, that is the Joint Security Area straddling the line at Panmunjom.

These organizations have lost much of their real meaning. The UN Command was the cover under which the Americans stopped the North Koreans from taking over the South in 1950. The South Koreans, under the aegis of the UNC, provided many more troops than the U.S., suffered much heavier casualties and now have far more responsibility for defending the South than they ever did during the Korean War and for years afterward. The North Koreans have ceased to have anything to do with the MAC, set up to supervise the armistice under generals from the U.S. and North Korea.

As for the NNSC, Swiss and Swedish senior officers look after whatever's going on inside the JSA and along the Demilitarized Zone, the DMZ, another set of initials to remember. The UNC asked those “neutral” nations to serve on the commission while the North Koreans picked Poland and Czechoslovakia, two reliable Communist states. After the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, the North Koreans kicked them off the NNSC and refused to have anything to do with it. Similarly the North Koreans for years boycotted meetings of the armistice commission.

Those details, though, won't hinder observances today in Freedom House, the imposing structure in the JSA just below the military demarcation line or MDL (more initials!) that divides North from South. While allied officers in dress uniforms honor the anniversary of the truce at a critical moment in its history, the North Koreans from their side of the JSA will be eyeing the occasion through binoculars.

A blitzkrieg of editorials in the North's state media leaves no doubt they would like nothing better than to replace the truce with a “Peace Treaty” that would destroy the structure that's been defending South Korea all these years. Under terms of such a treaty, the UNC, MAC and the NNSC would cease to exist and the U.S.-South Korean alliance would be in jeopardy.

We may know more about what the North Koreans are up to during the ceremony. They've indicated they will return 55 sets of remains from among the 5,300 American soldiers, airmen and Marines missing from the Korean War. The Americans several weeks ago sent wooden coffins to the JSA for whenever the North Korean decided was the propitious moment to turn them over.

The North Koreans are still looking for every advantage they can get in talks over the remains. While delaying their transfer, they've been drumming away at the idea of a peace declaration without which they won't follow through on denuclearization. Does anyone believe, if a treaty were signed, that North Korea would then say, Ok, we no longer need nukes and missiles, we're ready to get rid of the ones we've got and destroy the facilities for making them?

As for transferring the bones, we hear that many of them have been on display in medical schools and other institutions. It's also assumed the North Koreans are hoarding some in hopes of terrific payoffs. Reports vary on how much the North Koreans hope to get in “expenses,” but prices per skeleton range from $20,000 to $100,000. Are the Americans going to pay those outrageous prices as the cost of “recovery" of fallen heroes?

President Donald Trump obviously had no clue what he was getting into when he boasted that he had gotten Kim Jong-un when they met in Singapore to commit to return of remains. It was as though he walked blind-folded into a trap from which Kim would be the easy winner.

Lately Trump has accused “the fake media” of making up stuff about the frustrations of getting anything done on anything, denuclearization, GI remains, whatever. He did say a month ago that the North Koreans had already turned over 200 sets of remains, but he's yet to say, Oh, I guess I was wrong. Nobody expects him to talk about the messes he created.

Donald Kirk, www.donaldkirk.com, has visited Panmunjeom many times while writing about the standoff between the U.S. and North Korea.