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prevented them from escalating and resolved them and thereby<br />

contributed greatly to reducing tension and maintaining peace. 350<br />

However, the opinions of Ch’oe and Kim that the MAC has resolved<br />

incidents does not match well with this study, albeit with a few but<br />

important exceptions.<br />

There are also somewhat more cautious evaluations of the<br />

Commission. According to Ha (2003), the MAC has not worked well<br />

owing to North Korea’s obstructions, a view that concurs with that of<br />

many observers quoted in this study. But Ha also notes that peace has<br />

been preserved thanks to the role of the UNC on the basis of the<br />

armistice regime and the American troops’ presence. The Armistice<br />

Agreement is the legal and systemic basis for maintaining peace in the<br />

Korean peninsula which, as we have seen, was confirmed when the<br />

Basic Agreement was signed in 1991. By implementing the Armistice<br />

Agreement and exercising control over the MAC, the UNC has played<br />

a decisive role in preventing war. Both the MAC and the NNSC have<br />

prevented war. In 2006, the UNC was still responsible for the<br />

administration of the DMZ and in 2008, it was the longest peace<br />

enforcement coalition in the history of the UN.<br />

Quinones (2001) notes that the MAC was for many years the<br />

only institutionalized, politically accepted and functioning channel of<br />

communication between the two Koreas. But its role as the sole<br />

channel of communication has greatly diminished since the two<br />

350_ Ch’oe, T’allaengjôn ihu Pukhan-ûi yuenkunsaryôngbu muryôkhwa-e taehan tongin<br />

yôn’gu, 2004, p. 18; Harrison, Military Armistice in Korea: A Case Study for Strategic<br />

Leaders, pp. 18-19, 23; Kim, “1960nyôndae kunsa chôngjôn wiwônhoe-wa<br />

‘chôngjôn ch’eje,’” 2003, p. 166; Kim, “Kunsa chôngjôn wiwônhoe (UNCMAC),”<br />

2006(a), pp. 81, 83; Lee, Panmunjom, Korea, 2004, pp. xviii-xix. Original quotation<br />

from Kim, ibid., 2003.<br />

462 Peace-keeping in the Korean Peninsula

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