09-151.pdf

fighter planes in transport containers and brought them into its
territory from China. The Czech and Polish members asked how such
a transport had been possible and refused to dispatch an investigation
team. They argued that one side could reject a dispatch of mobile
inspection teams, but such a viewpoint was a clear violation of the
Armistice Agreement, Paragraph 28, on observations and inspections
of violations outside the DMZ. Although the NNSC held several
meetings at the request of the UNC/MAC Senior Member, since Czechoslovakia
and Poland supported North Korea, the dispatch of the team
was delayed. Prior to the dispatch, a complaint from the Czech and
Polish members on a formal mistake in the request was refuted by
having the original wording immediately investigated.
When the eight-man team and its assistants arrived on October
15, the Swedish and Swiss members wanted to inspect the whole
airport to find out whether the planes had been there since the war or
had been brought in afterwards. In contrast, the Polish and Czech
members just asked the Airport Commander if they could see the
containers in the airport buildings. The Commander confirmed that
there were neither any airplanes nor any parts to assemble brought in
after July 27. The team was then driven around the airport for 25
minutes. The Swedish and Swiss members saw well camouflaged jet
and propeller planes that, according to Mueller-Lhotska (1997), were
Russian MIG airplanes. The members wanted to inspect them closely
but were told that they were military secrets and could not be inspected.
When they asked to see the aviation journals to find out how and when
the planes were brought in, they were refused: the documents were
secret. A request to inspect the southern part of the airport behind a
hill was also rejected.
The Foundation of the MAC and the NNSC and the First Turbulent Years
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