02.02.2013 Views

09-151.pdf

09-151.pdf

09-151.pdf

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Armistice Agreement by writing: “In my view, sir, our job here is not<br />

finished.” Yet, in December, following strong North Korean pressure,<br />

China recalled its MAC representative. Representatives of the CPV<br />

were officially discharged in P’yôngyang on December 15. Consequently,<br />

another significant armistice mechanism was dismantled and a contact<br />

point in Panmunjom was lost. 316<br />

The secretary meeting requested by the UNC/MAC held on<br />

December 21 to discuss the return of a US helicopter and the pilot<br />

resulted in the first direct talks between North Korean and US generals<br />

at P’anmungak on the same day. Previously, on December 17, during<br />

routine training near the DMZ, Warrant Officers David Hilemon and<br />

Bobby Hall inadvertently flew in snow-covered terrain an unarmed US<br />

Army helicopter into North Korean airspace. Assuming that it was a<br />

spy mission and without trying to communicate with the helicopter or<br />

the US Army, North Korean anti-aircraft guns shot the helicopter<br />

down 15 kilometres from the frontier over its territory. Hilemon was<br />

killed but Hall escaped from the wreckage and was captured by North<br />

Korean soldiers, who tied him to a tree, kicked him, threw stones at<br />

him and forced him to pose for a photograph with his hands in the air.<br />

He was moved to P’yôngyang, where North Korean interrogators<br />

lectured him about the 1968 Pueblo incident. Hall had to write many<br />

drafts of a confession before signing the final version on December 27,<br />

backdating it to Christmas Day on the North Koreans’ demand. He<br />

316_ Jhe, op. cit., 1995, p. 73; Kim, ibid., 2006(a), p. 91; Kukpang chôngbo ponbu, ibid.,<br />

1997, pp. 84-5; Mueller-Lhotska and Millett, op. cit., p. 120; Widén, “Koreareflektioner,”<br />

Yoboseyo (September 1996), no. 3, p. 3. Original quotation marks. The<br />

UNC Commander’s letter is recorded in Mueller-Lhotska and Millett, ibid., pp.<br />

150-151.<br />

North Korea Incapacitates the MAC and the NNSC in the 1990s<br />

4<strong>09</strong>

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!