UN General Assembly
1952

82. The problem of the prisoners of war is a particularly shameful chapter in the history of the Korean conflict and of the Panmunjom talks. The procedure for settling the problem should not, however, be in doubt. There are clear and unequivocal international agreements on the question of the treatment of prisoners of war. All that was necessary, one would have thought, would have been to apply these agreements, the signatories to which include the United States Government, Not so, however. The history of the prison camps in South Korea, where terrorism, violence, starvation and murder have become the daily lot of the Korean and Chinese volunteer prisoners, is a dark page in the history of recent years. Koje has become the scene of the martyrdom of Korean patriots and Chinese volunteers. A few weeks ago, on Cheju, fifty-two prisoners who dared to hoist their national flag on one of their national holidays were brutally murdered. Only yesterday the American Press reported that eleven prisoners in the Koje camp had been injured following alleged insubordination. And it is precisely this question of prisoners of war which the Government of the United States is using as a pretext to prevent the conclusion of an armistice, to undertake the systematic sabotage of the talks and finally to adjourn them, as it recently did in the most shameful manner, without fixing a date for their resumption. This step was obviously taken with a view to confronting the General Assembly with a fait accompli.