09-151.pdf

In February, Swedish and Swiss NNSC members visited the
eastern corridor along the East Sea, which is one of two roads through
the DMZ. The other goes from Torasan to Kaesông in the west. In late
March, the UNC invited the NNSC to observe parts of the exercise
“Reception, Staging, Onward Movement, and Integration/Foal Eagle”
with forces from the Combined Forces Command established in
1978, consisting of American and South Korean troops and the South
Korean Defence. The purpose was to verify that it was a defensive and
not an offensive exercise. The NNSC should also verify that the
exercise which aimed to support the existing South Korean forces with
troops and materials as such did not violate the Armistice Agreement.
Finally, the NNSC supervised the ceremony at Panmunjom in
May in which the remains of a few soldiers from the UNC killed during
the Korean War were repatriated to the UNC following a visit by an
American delegation to P’yôngyang. At this ceremony, the delegation
crossed the MDL. Armed soldiers from both the US and North Korea
monitored the events. The event was considered to be an important
political step in the right direction and symbolically important. The
NNSC supervised the repatriation and took part in a commemorative
ceremony the following day at the Yongsan Army Base in Seoul.
On August 8, 2008, North Korea blamed the US for armistice
violations but its criticism included the Swedish and Swiss NNSC
delegations. Three days later, North Korea urged that the criticism
“Fungerande kommunikation i Panmunjom” (http://www. mil.se/int, January 24,
2007); Fogelmark, ibid., January 18, 2007; Jacobsson, “Repatriering tillbaka till
Nordkorea” (http://www.mil.se/int, January 22, 2007); Swedish officer, e-mail,
September 17, 2009; Theolin, “NNSC håller sitt 3000:e möte i Panmunjom,”
March 20, 2007.
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