09-151.pdf

ment rejected the proposal for passage through the DMZ for free
North-South exchanges for non-military purposes that was repeated
at the meeting.
At the 52nd meeting proposed by the KPA/CPV held on December
14, the North mentioned that it had suggested preliminary talks to
discuss North-South exchanges in mail and communications matters
and proposed that representatives should be allowed to pass through
the MAC Headquarter’s Area and be offered a meeting place. The
proposal was made after the North Korean Minister of Communication
on December 1 had suggested to his South Korean counterpart
that such talks should be held in Panmunjom on December 17.
Although the issue lay outside its jurisdiction, the MAC would, if the
two Koreas agreed to meet, provide a meeting place, but none took
place due to the opposition of the South Korean government. Later, at
the 78th MAC meeting requested by the KPA/CPV convened on
October 11, 1957, the North suggested the opening of a few trading
routes through the DMZ to enable trade between the two Koreas. The
South responded that the issue lay outside its jurisdiction. 45
The above-mentioned James M. Lee (1998a) asserts that the
North began to make political proposals in the MAC after the Geneva
Conference that was held between April 26 and July 5, 1954, in
accordance with the Armistice Agreement, Paragraph 60, prescribing
that “...a political conference of a higher level of both sides be held by
45_ Hapch’am chôngbo ponbu, op. cit., 1999, p. 38; Kukpang chôngbo ponbu, ibid.,
1993, pp. 42-3, 55; Lee, ibid., 1998(a), p. 11: Panmunjom, Korea (Baltimore:
American Literary Press, Inc., 2004), p. 189; Lee, op. cit., May 2, 2007, p. 7;
Wigforss, Rapport avseende verksamheten vid Svenska Övervakningskontingenten i
Korea (Panmunjom, November 17, 1957), pp. 1-2.
The Foundation of the MAC and the NNSC and the First Turbulent Years
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