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Talks at Panmunjom fail as sides exchange charges
Two weeks after the seizure of the USS Pueblo by North Korea in 1968, armored personnel carriers from the 2nd Infantry Division line up in a frozen rice paddy near Freedom Bridge at the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
By STARS AND STRIPES | Stars and Stripes February 9, 1968
PANMUNJOM, Korea — American and Communist delegates met at Panmunjom again Wednesday as the world awaited news on the Pueblo seizure.
The only result was an exchange of routine charges and glancing mention of the ship as the meeting closed.
Col. John P. Lucas Jr., Military Armistice Commission secretary, heard North Korean Col. Han Ju Kyong charge the United Nations Command with breaching the Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone and illegally introducing forbidden weapons into the zone.
Lucas said the charges would be investigated but implied they were false. He in turn flayed the North Koreans for dispatching a 3l-man assassination team whose intent was to storm the presidential mansion and kill ROK President Chung Hee Park. He asked the Reds for assurances it would not happen again.
The meeting called by the Reds adjourned after about a half-hour. It adjourned after indecisive sparring between the two delegates.
In a closing statement, Lucas accused the Reds of having "nothing of substance" and insisted that the seizure of the USS Pueblo was a "subject of overriding importance" that must be given top priority in discussions.
It was the only mention of the Pueblo incident. The Communist delegate did not refer to it at all.
Three hours before the meeting, some 400 South Korean students from a Presbyterian seminary in Kimchon near Taegu were turned back as they attempted to cross Freedom Bridge and invade the Joint Security Area where the meeting took place.
The students were protesting closed negotiations with the Reds over the Pueblo seizure, claiming South Korea is being unjustly excluded and that the U.S. is making gestures of apology and appeasement to North Korea.
A statement from the 8th U.S. Army said Thursday:
"Upon arrival at Freedom Bridge, the group was stopped by one American and two KATUSA (Korean Augmentation to U.S. Army) M.P.s, who fired a few warning, shots over their heads in an effort to stop them from proceeding north. One group of 50 to 100 students forced their way across the bridge where they were stopped by American and KATUSA soldiers, who fired a few warning shots over the heads of this group."
The group was taken back over the bridge and turned over to Korean National Police along with the demonstrators, whom the statement said came by train from Gideon Theological Seminary.
The statement said "a few individuals suffered minor cuts and bruises."
Several armored personnel carriers and fire engines were rushed up to block the north side of the bridge.
Korean newspaper reports said 18 students were injured in a 50-minute scuffle with American guards who were on duty at the bridge, which spans the Imjin River arid is so named because American prisoners released by the Communists marched over it in 1953.
President Park said Tuesday that 2.5 million reservists will be armed from a weapons factory that will be built this year. He urged that all South Korean males between 20 and 40 be placed in the reserves.
The ROK Defense Ministry announced Wednesday all active duty military personnel have been extended indefinitely because of the current Korean crisis. The extension went into effect after the Jan. 21 attempt on Park's life.
