UN General Assembly
1952

20. It is in defence of this ideal, that is, for the protection of peace, that United Nations troops are fighting in Korea. Unhappily, the Korean drama is being drawn out. The quest for the terms of an armistice — surely the object of all our hopes — still continues. This is certainly neither the time nor the place to repeat what has been so clearly and sometimes so courageously said in the First Committee, where there have been long debates on the last remaining obstacle to an armistice — the forced repatriation of prisoners of war. Yet I cannot help noting, with surprise and sadness, that some of our conceptions of human rights do not appear to meet in all quarters with the response which their generosity should have evoked. Still, in spite of everything, we are not debarred from cherishing the hope that a settlement will be reached. On balance, it seems to me that, notwithstanding the repeated disappointments and misunderstandings, wisdom requires that we should leave every door open.