The document, signed by U.S. Lieutenant-General William K Harrison and his Northern Army counterpart, General Nam Il, stated that he was oriented towards a ceasefire “until a definitive peaceful solution is found.” The signed ceasefire established a “complete cessation of all hostilities in Korea by all armed men[2] which should be imposed by the commanders of both sides. However, the ceasefire is merely a ceasefire between the armed forces and not an agreement between governments to normalize relations. [32] No formal peace treaty has been signed and normalized relations have not been restored. The ceasefire founded the Military Dearcation Line (MDL) and the DMZ. The DMZ was agreed as a 4.0 km wide buffer zone between the two Korean nations. [33] The DMZ follows the Kansas Line, where the two sides clashed at the time of the signing of the ceasefire. The DMZ is currently the most defended national border in the world from 2018. [Citation required] Both sides regularly accuse the other side of violating the agreement, but accusations have become increasingly frequent due to rising tensions over North Korea`s nuclear program. South Korea never signed the ceasefire agreement, with President Syngman Rhee refusing to accept power. [4] [5] China normalized relations and signed a peace agreement with South Korea in 1992. In 1994, China withdrew from the Military Ceasefire Commission, leaving North Korea and the UN command essentially the only participants in the ceasefire agreement.
[6] [7] In 2011, South Korea declared that North Korea had violated the ceasefire 221 times. [8] The agreement also called for the establishment of the Military Ceasefire Commission (MAC) and other agencies to ensure the ceasefire. And then there were the prisoners of war who were not brought back at all. About 80,000 South Koreans were in North Korea when a ceasefire ended the war. Most of them would have been employed as workers, “re-educated” and integrated into North Korean society. In 2010, South Korea estimated that 560 were still alive. Their torments in North Korean repression were unknown until a small group of defectors told their stories. War detention (POW) was an important and problematic issue in the negotiations. [22] The Communists held 10,000 prisoners of war and UNC 150,000 prisoners of war. [9] PvA, KPA and UNC were unable to agree on a return system because many VPA and KPA soldiers refused to be repatriated to the North,[23] which was unacceptable to the Chinese and North Koreans.
[24] In the final ceasefire agreement, signed on 27 July 1953, a return commission of the Neutral Nations, chaired by Indian General K. S. Thimayya, was established to deal with the issue. [25] Article IV (paragraph 60) of the ceasefire agreement provides for a political conference to be held within three months of the signing of the agreement in order to “ensure the peaceful settlement of the Korean issue”. [2] In April 1954, a conference was held in Geneva, during which the three-month period was missed by six months.
