N.Z. manager in Korea

Press, 11 July 1988, Page 21

N.Z. manager in Korea

NZPA Panmunjom, Korea The New Zealand Olympic Games team manager, Bruce Ullrich, found himself briefly surrounded by North Korean soldiers in Panmunjom during the week-end. He visited the Military Armistice Commission building in the Korean Demilitarised Zone about 60km north of Seoul via Unification Road. An officer from the United Nations Command Security Force invited him to walk across the dividing line between the two Koreas to the North Korean side of the table.

In this building during the last 35 years, north has met south to resolve military, economic and political problems.

When Mr Ullrich moved to the northern side of the negotiating table he found himself surrounded by about 10 camera-clicking, North Korean soldiers leering through the windows of the blue coloured M.A.C. building at him.

A North Korean tour party was in the area at the time and this was the reason for the presence of the unusually large number of North Korean military gazers. The staring accentuated the fact that while the July 27, 1953, truce may have ended the fighting, the subsequent ceasefire has been decidedly precarious.

About 1100 troops have been killed along the border since the Military Armistice Commission

was established to supervise implementation of the armistice agreement. Mr Ullrich said the visit to the D.M.Z. highlighted for him how difficult it would have been for both North and South Korea to co-host this September’s Olympics.

“The idea of thousands of competitors, spectators and journalists moving to and fro across the Bridge of No Return now seems totally unrealistic to me,” Mr Ullrich said. It was across this now walled bridge that 12,760 prisoners of war were returned to freedom.

During the visit, Mr Ullrich inspected the site in front of the bridge where two American officers, Captain Bonifas and Lieutenant Barrett, were hacked to deajth by

North Korean soldiers while attempting to prune a tree on August 18, 1976. .

Last year, the stump involved in Operation Paul Bunyan fell over and a simple plaque now marks the site.

It was across this bridge too that Operation Breeches Buoy concluded when the 82 surviving crewmen of the U.S.S. Pueblo were returned to freedom. Mr Ullrich said he was satisfied with the security arrangements for New Zealand team members in Seoul. “I’m satisfied the Koreans are doing everything to protect our athletes.

“We’ve received assurances of this from the highest levels,” he said.