South Korea and North Korea on Thursday (Jul 27) marked the 70th anniversary of the signing of an armistice that halted the three-year Korean War.
It was the longest negotiated armistice in history.
On July 27, 1953, military leaders from North Korea, China and the United Nations Command (UNC) led by the United States – the fighting parties in the three-year Korean war – met at Panmunjom as they agreed to a ceasefire deal.
A military armistice commission was set up to negotiate and implement the terms of the agreement.
When the armistice was signed, many Koreans thought it would be temporary and that there would soon be a permanent peace treaty or reunification of the two Koreas.
But 70 years on, the Korean Peninsula remains a tinderbox in the absence of a permanent peace treaty.
There used to be regular meetings at Panmunjom until North Korea withdrew from the military armistice commission in 1994.
Retired US Army officer Steve Tharp has lived in South Korea for 32 years, 14 years while on active duty – including time at the UNC Military Armistice Commission.
At the time, he met extensively with North Korean and Chinese military officers at the joint security area.
Among the discussion was the repatriation of “war remains” from North Korea – UNC soldiers who were killed whose remains had stayed in North Korea, he said at a media briefing earlier this month.