PANMUNJOM, Korea -- North Korea boycotted Friday a meeting of the Korean Military Armistice Commission sought by the American-led United Nations Command to protest a recent North Korean intrusion along the border with South Korea.
South Korean Army Maj. Gen. Hwang Won-tak, senior UNC delegate to the commission, waited in vain at the truce village of Panmunjom 35 miles north of Seoul for his North Korean counterpart, Maj. Gen. Choe Ui-ung, who did not show up.
North Korea gave no advance notice of any kind but simply ignored the UNC request for a commission meeting made Tuesday. In the absence of a North Korean counterproposal for a new meeting date, UNC officials had expected the proposed session to take place.
The UNC called the meeting to protest a clash a week ago inside the central portion of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas in which three North Korean infiltrators were shot to death while two South Korean defenders were wounded.
The commission, set up under the Korean Armistice Agreement that brought the 1950-53 Korean War to a close, met last on Feb. 13 last year. It was the 459th session since its establishment in July, 1953.
North Korea has since boycotted the commission in protest against the appointment of a South Korean general as the chief UNC delegate. Before the designation of Maj. Gen. Hwang, U.S. generals led UNC teams at commission meetings.
North Korea has contended that the UNC, and not South Korea, is the signatory to the Korean Armistice along with North Korea and China. Therefore, they won't accept a South Korean general as the UNC spokesman.
'In the absence of a commission meeting (today) we demand an apology that demonstrates that those who have perpetrated this hostile act have been punished and a guarantee that such incidents will not recur,' Gen. Hwang told reporters as he left Panmunjom.
