in the Demilitarized Zone as it has in the past both within and without the Demilitarized Zone".

On June 8 the Senior Member of the United Nations Command Delegation to the Military Armistice Commission sent a letter to the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission which stated that "the United Nations Command is suspending performance on its part of those provisions of the Armistice Agreement governing operations of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission and the Neutral Nations Inspection Teams in the area under the control of the United Nations Command effective June 9, 1956. The United Nations Command will expect withdrawal of the teams to the Demilitarized Zone on that date. Administrative details incident to this move will be provided through normal liaison channels”.

The Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission met again on June 8. At that time the Commission decided to withdraw its inspection teams from the ports of entry at Pusan, Kunsan, Inchon, Sinuiju, Manpo, and Sinanju and authorized their return to Panmunjom. In a letter to the Military Armistice Commission dated June 8, the Commission advised "that it has decided to instruct the Neutral Nations Inspection Teams that they are to suspend their supervisory, inspection, and control activities in the respective ports of entry effective June 9, 1956, 0001 hours local time, and to return to Panmunjom as soon as transportation facilities requested by this Commission can be made available to them".

The teams in the Republic of Korea were accordingly flown to the Demilitarized Zone June 9. The teams in north Korea returned to Panmunjom on June 10 and 11.

The withdrawal of the inspection teams, in the view of the Unified Command, serves the basic purpose of the Armistice by terminating serious perversion of the inspection provisions of that agreement. The Communist side had consistently prevented meaningful inspections from being carried out in its territory, but wished to preserve the inspection teams to maintain the semblance of effective supervision of the reinforcement provisions of the Armistice Agreement.

The United Nations Command has made it clear that it continues to regard the Armistice Agreement as in force and has limited its action to the particular suspension described above. Such suspension of performance constitutes an indispensable protection of its rights under the Armistice Agreement. The United Nations Command will continue to submit reports to the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission in the Demilitarized Zone as provided by paragraph 13(d) of the Armistice Agreement.

The text of the statement by the representative of the United Nations Command in the Military Armistice Commission on May 31, 1956 is attached,1 together with statements on July 4, 1955, and July 14, 1955,2 by the United Nations Command representative on the Military Armistice Commission summarizing Communist violations of the reinforcing restrictions of the Korean Armistice Agreement and Communist obstruction of the work of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission.

Sixth Report of the U.N. Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea, August 24, 1956

[Extract]

3

Chapter I

ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMISSION AND ITS COMMITTEE

A. CONSIDERATION OF THE COMMISSION'S REPORT BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT ITS TENTH SESSION

4

1. At its tenth session, the General Assembly had before it the fifth report of the United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea in which the Commission stated that it was "still unable at present to contribute to the realization of its fundamental objective, the unification of Korea". The Commission also indicated that it remained "convinced of the pressing need for a peaceful settlement of the Korean question".

2. The General Assembly discussed the Korean question and, at its 549th meeting on 29 November 1955, adopted resolution 910A(X) by 44 votes to none, with 11 abstentions. In this resolution, the Assembly noted the Commission's report, recalled that in resolution 811(IX) of 11 December 1954, in approving the report of the fifteen Governments participating in the Geneva Conference on behalf of the United Nations, the Assembly had expressed the hope that it would soon prove

'Not printed here. See American Foreign Policy, 1956 (Department of State publication 6811, August 1959), pp. 821–825.

2 Not printed here.

3 Text from General Assembly Official Records: Eleventh Session, Supplement No. 13 (A/3172), pp. 1-2.

4 Ibid., Tenth Session, Supplement No. 13 (A/2947, para. 4).

possible to make progress towards the achievement by peaceful means of a unified, independent and democratic Korea under a representative form of government and of full restoration of international peace and security in the area; it noted also that paragraph 62 of the Armistice Agreement of 27 July 1953 provided that the Agreement "shall remain in effect until expressly superseded either by mutually acceptable amendments and additions or by provisions in an appropriate agreement for a peaceful settlement at a political level between both sides". The Assembly reaffirmed its intention to continue to seek an early solution of the Korean question in accordance with the objectives of the United Nations and urged that continuing efforts be made to achieve these objectives. The Secretary-General was requested to place the Korean question on the provisional agenda of the eleventh session.

B. ORGANIZATION AND PRESENT POSITION

3. As a matter of internal organization the Commission, on 7 September 1955, decided to establish in Korea, from 1 January 1956, a Committee consisting of the representatives of Australia, the Philippines, Thailand and Turkey, with authority to act on behalf of the Commission in Korea in pursuit of the Commission's objectives. It decided to adjourn sine die upon establishment of its Committee, but also provided that the full Commission could be reconvened at any time if circumstances should render it necessary.

4. The Committee of UNCURK held its first meeting on 1 January 1956 and established its headquarters in Seoul. It assumed the functions and responsibilities entrusted to the Commission and has discharged these within the existing limitations. The Committee reconvened the Commission to consider its annual report to the General Assembly.

Chapter II

THE KOREAN QUESTION AND THE ARMISTICE

5. The Korean question has to do with the fundamental objective of the United Nations in Korea, which is to establish a unified, independent and democratic government for the whole peninsula. The division in 1945 at the 38th parallel was from all points of view unacceptable to all parties concerned except as a temporary measure. The Korean conflict was started by the North Korean attack on 25 June

1950. With the armed intervention of the People's Republic of China, the fundamental objectives of General Assembly resolution 376 (V)1 could not be achieved. The Commission has consistently taken the view that the Armistice Agreement, which brought the conflict to a halt on 27 July 1953, was not a peace settlement but only a step towards ultimate ends that should be sought in a peace settlement. So far this search has been in vain. The position still is that the Armistice remains in operation and the Korean question as such is unsettled. There has in fact been no basic change in the position since the Commission reported last year.

6. The Commission itself has no part in the implementation of the Armistice. It can merely observe its effects and reactions to it and report on these.

7. The Republic of Korea refused to sign the Armistice Agreement, but agreed at the time not to hinder it while the due search for a political settlement went on. Its attitude of opposition to the Armistice has remained unshaken, and its impatience with the lack of progress so far towards a political settlement has been emphatically expressed. The Republic still contends that the Armistice is being observed by the United Nations side alone, and that a menacing build-up of men and particularly weapons, including modern varieties, is taking place north of the truce line. In support of this, it has continued to produce evidence from its own sources, as well as to quote statements made by the United Nations Command in the Military Armistice Commission. The Republic continues, therefore, to press strongly for denunciation by the United Nations side of the Armistice Agreement. It seeks also the withdrawal of the Communist forces from Kaesong, the Ongjim Peninsula and the Han River delta.

8. The Republic stresses the need in the circumstances as it sees them for increased United Nations forces and the strengthening of these and its own forces with the most up-to-date weapons in order to match the reported build-up in the north. As regards a solution of the Korean question in general, the Republic takes the view that a peaceful solution of the problem can come about only when the Chinese Communist forces have withdrawn completely from the territory of North Korea. It maintains that, in the meantime, it must itself remain strong and prepared for the possibility, though not necessarily the inevitability, of resort to armed force.

9. There has been no evidence during the year that the attitude of the authorities in North Korea has undergone any basic change. They have been reported as expressing a wish for contacts between the north and south, but have shown no signs of acceptance of the princi

ples on which the United Nations believes progress can be based. They have supported moves for a conference outside the framework of the United Nations to discuss settlement of the Korean question.

10. A more recent move by the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, in its own name and also that of the North Korean régime, for a conference of the nations concerned to discuss the question of the withdrawal from Korea of all foreign forces and of the peaceful unification of Korea was not accepted by the Governments of the United Nations Command, as it failed to indicate a willingness to negotiate on the basis of the principles already laid down by the United Nations. These Governments restated their readiness to discuss unification on the basis of such principles.

11. One particular development during the year has concerned the position of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission. UNCURK reported last year on the vigorous protests of the Republic of Korea against this piece of the Armistice machinery on the grounds of its evident ineffectiveness in carrying out its function of ensuring that no change took place in the strength of forces and the nature of weapons as they stood at 27 July 1953.

12. As stated in the Commission's previous report 1 (A/2947, paras. 17 to 19), demonstrations began in August 1955 against the presence in the Republic of Korea of NNSC teams. These demonstrations continued throughout the remainder of the year, though on a reduced scale. In a statement issued on 10 December 1955,2 President Rhee urged an end to the demonstrations in order to facilitate the reaching of a solution of the NNSC problem. The demonstrations then subsided. Previously, in September 1955, NNSC teams at Taegu and Kangnung had been discontinued in accordance with recommendations submitted to the Military Armistice Commission by NNSC, and there had also been a reduction in the personnel of corresponding teams at Pusan, Kunsan and Inchon.

13. The attitude of the United Nations Command to the Armistice generally was shown in its approach to the NNSC problem. Its statements showed its concern likewise over the consequences of the apparent failure of NNSC to achieve its objectives so far as North Korea was concerned, but it also believed at the same time that every effort should be made to maintain the Armistice Agreement. As a practical measure in the circumstances, the United Nations Command, on 31 May 1956, announced in the Military Armistice Commission that it was entitled to take steps necessary to protect itself from the con

1 See General Assembly Official Records: Tenth Session, Supplement No. 13. 2 Not printed here.