“A great deal of those discussions were about US remains but we even had what were allegedly the remains of two UK (United Kingdom) soldiers back in the fall of 1995. Another one was North Korean soldiers that were swept down into the south during flood season through a river,” he said.
BREAKDOWN IN COMMUNICATIONS
These days, the only communication channel still open is a hotline at Panmunjom. Even so, the North Koreans do not always answer the phone.
Since the breakdown of talks between former US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the 2019 Hanoi Summit, the isolated country has rejected all attempts at contact from South Korea.
The recent incident of a US soldier disappearing into the North during a tour of Panmunjom again highlighted the complications of two neighbours remaining technically at war.
“The armistice agreement is in the Guinness Book of Records, as the longest surviving ceasefire in the world, and 70 years is a long time for a ceasefire that was supposed to be temporary, to have survived,” Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison, deputy commander of the UNC in Korea.
“Despite the fact that millions of people have died in the conflict, it’s still much of a forgotten war to many people outside of Korea. And I’ve learned that war can creep up on you very easily. And we only have to look to the lessons of Ukraine in the last couple of years to see the danger and the cost if conflagration or conflict does break out.”
Source: CNA
