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The Negotiation strategies at the Armistice talks during the Korean war, and the chain of command on both parties

  • The Review of Korean History
  • 2008, (90), pp.337-374
  • Publisher : The Historical Society Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > History

Boyoung Kim 1

1한양대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In June 1951, the frontline was being fixed down to the vicinity of the 38th parallel, and the U.N. forces and the Communist army began to seek for a cease-fire. In preparation for the talks to arrange that, both parties swiftly came up with their own negotiation strategies, established chains of command of their own, and put together delegations for the impending talks. The terms they each set before agreeing upon a cease-fire, and the general objectives set by both parties during this time period, later influenced and defined the entire talk process. The chain of command on both parties, established during the process of cease-fire talks, cleary revealed the true major forces that were involved in the Korean war. With the U.S. entrance into the war under the name of United Nations forces, and the entrance of the Chinese army as well, turned the Korean war into a completely different war. The major players of this new war were no other than U.S. and China. And those two became the opponents at the table of the cease-fire talks as well. Both U.S. and China established a chain of command for the cease-fire talks with a structure that would enable them to lead the negotiations, and put together a negotiation team which would see to the realization of details and actual procedures. The chain of command on the Communist army's part was comprised of a hotline which connected Stalin to Mao Tsetung to 리커눙, and also a negotiation team. On the other hand, U.S. established a chain of command which excluded not only the U.N. but also South Korea, and conducted the negotiations with direct instructions from Washington. South Koreans protested, but their protest was not heard, and U.S. put together a delegation of its own for negotiations. Because of such chain of command, both South and North Koreas had no say during the negotiation process, and were not authorized to weigh in the final decision. U.S. excluded South Korea, and China and Russia asked for North Korea's silence. The roles of both South and North Koreas were very limited. Yet China, which considered and treated North Korea as a fellow Socialist brother state, at least in formality presented the North Korean representative at the negotiation table, while the representative for the 'South Korean' part was appointed by the U.N. Commander in chief, and served as merely an observer with no authority. It did not report to either the Korean government or President Lee Seung Man, or received orders from them either. Under these circumstances, South Korea was shunned out of the negotiation chamber, and that itself caused the Koreans' protest against the cease-fire talks to grow even more fierce. It was never merely an issue of national sentimentality or anger. The structure and inner workings of the delegations arranged for the cease-fire talks eventually produced a cease-fire treaty which had China & North Korea on one side, and the U.N. forces(without South Korea) on the other. And as we all know, this kind of cease-fire led to the unstable nature of the cease-fire status, and South Korea's ambiguous position in all of these matters.

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