Korean border killings latest in series during 23-year truce

Press, 24 August 1976, Page 8

Korean border killings latest in series during 23-year truce

| By lAN MacKENZIE. (NZPA-Reuter correspondent Tokyo ’ Even on quiet summer (days with sun dappling the 'earth beneath the evergreen (trees and shrubs, an air of (cold war menace hangs over ‘the Korean armistice village of Panmunjom. I A visitor to the village — known as the Joint Security Area (J.S.A.) — in the middle of the 4km-wide demilitarised zone dividing North and South Korea is very aware he is at the heart of a 23-year-oJd cold war. The air of menace is basi-i cally the feeling of uncer-i tainty felt by the south over: North Korean actions. The i killing of two American officers by North Koreans ini the J.S.A. on Wednesday is! only the most serious in a series of incidents stretchingj back over the years. North Korea at first! charged the Americans with: provoking the latest in-' cident. It has since in-! directly expressed regret ati the incident. The reasons for the incidents and harassments are; rarely clear. The attitude of; the North Koreans often; appears to >e governed by i international diplomacy and

the desire of the Communist Pyongyang Government to focus attention on Korea. Diplomatic observers in Tokyo, for example, note that North Korea failed to (get unanimous backing for (its anti-American and antiISouth Korean stand at last week’s summit conference of i non-aligned nations in Collombo. | The presence of the (United Nations command, (which signed the 1953 (armistice with North Korea (and China to end hostilities ion the North-East Asia pen- ' insula, is a bone of bitter [Contention. The North Koi reans have consistently de(manded its removal. j The Panmunjom Joint Se-l ( curity Area is patrolled by tough-looking North Korean (guards in drab olive-green I uniforms, peaked caps with a red band, and brown boots modelled on the Soviet (Army, and by American soldiers and South Korean (troops, attached to the United States Army under the auspices of the United Nations Command. The Americans and South! Koreans, dressed in summer! in light khaki uniforms,! have worn riot police hel-l mets since 1967. when a group of North Korean! guards and workers attacked;

U.N.C. soldiers with wooden scaffolding, fracturing the skull of one of them. Each side is permitted 35 armed guards in the J.S.A. at one time.

I Since the armistice the !troops of 16 United Nations (member countries have (served with the U.N.C.

On June 30 last year, United States Army Major William Henderson was knocked to the ground and kicked by North Korean guards at a meeting in the J.S.A. of the Korean Joint Military Commission, which discusses violations of the armistice agreement and other matters.

Major Henderson’s larynx was severely damaged and he is still receiving treatment, according to a United Nations Command spokesman.

Journalists visiting the! Joint Security Area from South Korea for meetings of the commissior are issued armbands and warned not to stray out of areas protected by U.N.C. soldiers or to react to provocations by the North Koreans.

1 attended such a meeting Hast year, and was standing alone by a building occupied by U.N.C. soldiers on the south side of the security area when a North Korean;

guard approached me. He stood in front of me, stared, and then started spitting at my shoes. When 1 did not react, he spat several times again before two American soldiers came over and stood between us.

The incident passed off without further trouble, but when I attempted to photograph a North Korean guard goose-stepping into position, two North Korean soldiers quickly moved in front of me and blocked my view.

This was minor in itself, but it is the sort of thing to which U.N.C. troops are subjected continually; U.N.C. officials report.

They say the American and South' Korean troops who serve in the Joint Security Area are carefully selected volunteers. They must be over 1.83 m and be of above average intelligence. “They are the closest thing you would get to an elite type unit because of the sensitivity of the area,” a U.N.C. official said. The U.N.C. soldiers carry side-arms, but they are carefully instructed to avoid trouble:’ probably the most serious activity on their part is the "staring game” in which North Koreans and U.N.C. soldiers try to stare each other down. _ ,

The incident on Wednesday took place at the bottom of a wood-covered hill at the south end of the “Bridge of No Return” across the dry bed of the Paju River leading into North Korea.

The U.N.C. maintains twoman observation posts overlooking the river, and a group of South Korean labourers were pruning bushes to improve visibility between the posts when the attack took place, according to the U.N.C.

The United States Army also maintains two platoonsized observation posts — code-named "Collier” and “Queiette” —■ on two hills on the southern edge of the demilitarised zone flanking the dusty road to Panmunjom.

Backing them up is a brigade of the United States Second "Indian Head” Division to the north of the Imjim River. The area north of the river is a restricted zone, with a skeleton steel girder spanning the river known as “Freedom Bridge.”

The remainder of the division. part of the 40,000strong American military presence in South Korea, is based on a valley corridor leading south from the demilitarised zone to Seoul, only 45kin away. _