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intruders at 9 a.m. ambushed a UNC police truck in the DMZ’s US<br />

second division sector about 100 metres from the Southern Border<br />

Line, presumably with handguns, automatic weapons and hand<br />

grenades. All four American soldiers aboard who were returning from<br />

maintenance of an observation post were killed. The UNC regarded<br />

the attack as the most serious one since the March 15 border incident<br />

(cf. p. 152). The UNC/MAC called the 296th MAC meeting held on<br />

October 23 and charged the North Koreans with the armed attack,<br />

committed in broad daylight. The South urged that North Korea admit<br />

its crime, punish those responsible and apologize to the UNC/MAC.<br />

Major General Ri ignored the charge by merely stating that North<br />

Korea had nothing to do with the incident. which, as we have seen, is<br />

a regularized pattern of behaviour.<br />

Six private meetings were held between the MAC Senior<br />

Members to negotiate the language of the document North Korea<br />

demanded with regard to the helicopter incident. When the fifth<br />

meeting was held on November 24, a final agreement was reached on<br />

a text. Notably, all meetings had been held in the NNSC conference<br />

room. On December 3, 1969, when the final meeting took place, the<br />

UNC/MAC Senior Member signed the “document of apology” North<br />

Korea had demanded and the crew members were released (no. 31). 152<br />

152_ Downs, ibid., pp. 150-151, 306; Grönvall, Månadsrapport för oktober 1969: Bilaga<br />

3 (Panmunjom, November 4, 1969), p. 3:1; Hapch’am chôngbo ponbu, op. cit.,<br />

1999, p. 271; Lee, ibid., 2004, pp. 54-5. Original quotation marks.<br />

Rising Tensions on the Korean Peninsula during the 1960s<br />

185

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