Korean peace might soon be a reality

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32967, 13 July 1972, Page 15

Korean peace might soon be a reality

(From ARNOLD DIBBLE, of United Press International, through N.Z.P.A.) TOKYO. The peace they talked about in a patched tent in the middle of a millet field in Panmunjom, Korea, from 1951-53 might at last be entering the arena of reality.

The Governments of! North and South Korea have announced an agreement to work toward the end of hostilities, a peaceful reunification of the peninsula, and an end to calling each other dirty names. It was perhaps North i Asia's most stunning de-1 velopment in two decades, j and it was all done “Kis-j singer style” with represen-' tatives on each side visiting the capitals of the other in super-secrecy. The people of South Korea — and it must be assumed North Korea — as well. as those in the other nations of Asia, were unaware. Even Korean diplomats in this sensitive capital were given no advance notice according to one key figure in the Korean Embassy in Tokyo. In hindsight, one might have seen some indications. The north and south Red

(Cross organisations began a series of meetings last autumn to strive toward the • uniting of families broken •by the “iron curtain” of the •Demilitarised Zone. But perhaps more signifii cant is the dropping to literally none in serious border incidents so far this year. BORDER INCIDENT According to United (Nations files there were a • record 761 major incidents in 1968, 138 in 1969, 12 in i 1970, 37 in 1971, and none • so far this year. It is a peacefully far- cry from the day on January 21, 1968, when more than 35

North Korean commandos came within 100 yards of Blue House (Korea’s White House) in an attempt to assassinate President Park Chung Hee. Two days later, the North Koreans captured the U.S.S. Pueblo, an American “spy ship” and held its crew captive until December 23, 1968 On April 15, 1969, the North Koreans shot down a United States Navy intelligence plane with the loss of 31 American crew. There are indications that foreign powers have pressured both sides to better relations, but how much influence they have had on the two Koreas is not known. Private reports indicate that the real initiatives came from the Koreans themselves. Both, according to these advices, decided that it would be impossible to overwhelm the other militarily or economically, so why not get along? The Korean war broke out on January 25, 1950. CASUALTIES One million casualties on both sides and nearly three 1 years later the opponents signed a truce at Panmunjom —on July 27, 1953. It was only a tenuous truce, but the document signed in that most improbable cockpit of history may . have been the beginning of peace after all.