UN General Assembly
1953

61. The fact that after these terrible years the whole of Korea is not united and free may seem to some not to warrant any degree of satisfaction with the past or of confidence in the future of the United Nations. The deliberate decision of the United Nations to seek the objective of the unification of Korea by peaceful means is sometimes classed as an act of appeasement. This pessimistic conclusion would be justified if talk about the unification of Korea were no more than a cover for acceptance of the partition of the country. This is not our view of the spirit of the Charter or of the intentions of the United Nations. 62. We have fought back the aggressor and, by so doing, have prevented him from gaining anything from his break of world peace. We have demonstrated that military aggression does not pay. Even when the desired prize of peace seemed within our grasp we held out for months on a point of moral principle — the question of the forcible repatriation of prisoners of war.