North Hits at Truce Body

North Korea has asked Australia to quit the Military Armistice Commission that formally supervises the Korean truce, a high-ranking Seoul government official said Monday.

"Ryu Yong-chol, vice director of the North Korean Ministry of People's Armed Forces, made the request to a high-ranking Australian diplomat Oct. 23 in Beijing," the official said. "It is not known how the Australian counterpart responded."

Mr. Ryu reportedly contended that since Pyeongyang and Canberra enjoy normal diplomatic relations, Australia should not serve its term on the MAC. North Korea and Australia resumed relations in May 2000 after a 25-year hiatus.

North Korea's efforts to nullify the armistice system governing the two Koreas goes back at least 10 years. The Military Armistice Commission is supposed to settle violations through negotiations, while another panel, the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, is to maintain a presence in both Koreas to show that the cease-fire remains in force.

The North proposes to replace this machinery with a peace system that would require withdrawal of the 37,000 U.S. troops on South Korean soil.

"The North is expected to extend the request to other nations that it has recently established diplomatic relations with, such as the Philippines," the official said.

The MAC initially was a 10-member commission. Five representatives are appointed by the United Nations Command. Two of these are from the South Korean army, one from the United States and one from Britain. Eight nations, among them Australia, the Philippines, Thailand and Canada, take six-month turns in rotation.

The other five members are appointed by the North Korean People's Army and China, but they quit in 1994, when North Korea set up its own "Panmunjom Representative Office of the North Korean People's Army" in Gaeseong. Mr. Ryu serves in that office.

In February, 1995, Pyeongyang got Poland removed from the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, in an attempt to nullify that body as well.

The North abated its campaign as inter-Korean reconciliation began to pick up pace with the 1998 crossing of the Demilitarized Zone by the late Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung with 500 cattle. It also remained quiet during last year's summit meeting and the ensuing year of unprecedented inter-Korean exchanges.

by Lee Young-jong