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the US make this assessment plausible.<br />

At this time, a few NNSC delegates were in its conference room.<br />

Since North Korea requested the Czech and Polish NNSC officers to<br />

immediately return to their respective camps, no representatives of<br />

these countries showed up any more that day. At 11.50 a.m., the<br />

North Korean Joint Duty Officer at Panmunjom called his UNC<br />

counterpart through the MAC hot-line to request a cease-fire and<br />

permission to accompany six officers across the MDL to evacuate the<br />

wounded guard. The UNC headquarters in Seoul approved the<br />

request and ordered a cease-fire: shooting ended at around 11.59 a.m.<br />

Thanks to efforts by Swedish and Swiss NNSC members and by<br />

officers from the UNC and KPA, the cease-fire was enforced. As after<br />

the axe murder in 1976, the mutual wish to reduce tension formed a<br />

“positive symmetry” for the NNSC to act upon.<br />

Around noon, eight unarmed KPA soldiers, including its Joint<br />

Duty Officer, crossed the MDL and brought the killed and wounded<br />

guards back. The soldiers were escorted by both North Korean and<br />

UNC Joint Duty Officers and a few Swiss NNSC officers. At 12.10<br />

p.m., Swedish and Swiss officers went to the North’s staff building<br />

P’anmungak to find out whether any soldiers were missing. Gunfire<br />

437; Lee, “Hanggong moham,” 1998(d), pp. 12-13: op. cit., 2001(b), pp. 112, 113:<br />

op. cit., 2004, p. 181; Mueller-Lhotska and Millett, Swiss Mission to Korea in the<br />

Change of Times 1953-1997, p. 70; Unell, Månadsrapport november 1984, Verk-<br />

samhetsöversikt: Bilaga 1, Underbil. 1:1: Incidenten i JSA 1984-11-23 (December 2,<br />

1984), p. 1. When a Czech NNSC member asked for asylum in the South on<br />

October 30, 1981 and succeeded, it did not raise great attention. The illegal border<br />

crossing of a Chinese MAC member and his wife on July 29, 1989 was relatively<br />

uncomplicated but led to reproaches from the North based on alleged misuse of<br />

the negotiation premises in Panmunjom. After the NNSC had confirmed their will<br />

to seek asylum in the US, they were granted political asylum there (like the Czech).<br />

From Lee, op. cit., 2001(a), pp. 174-5; Mueller-Lhotska and Millett, ibid., pp. 69, 70.<br />

Continued Tension but Renewed Dialogue during the 1980s<br />

351

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