page_title: Panmunjom
section_title: Truce talks and POW issue
hierarchical_section_title: Panmunjom / Truce talks and POW issue
caption_attribution_description: English: Panmunjom, Korea, the site of military armistice negotiations between representatives of the Communist forces fighting in Korea, and United Nations forces representatives.
context_page_description: Panmunjom, also known as Panmunjeom, now located in Kaesong, North Hwanghae Province, North Korea, was a village just north of the de facto border between North and South Korea, where the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement that paused the Korean War was signed. The building where the armistice was signed still stands.
  Its name is often used as a metonym for the nearby Joint Security Area, where discussions between North and South Korea still take place in blue buildings that straddle the Military Demarcation Line. As such, it is considered one of the last vestiges of the Cold War.
  Panmunjom is referenced in Billy Joel's 1989 hit single "We Didn't Start the Fire."
context_section_description: United Nations forces met with North Korean and Chinese officials at Panmunjeom from 1951 to 1953 for truce talks. The talks dragged on for many months. The main point of contention during the talks was the question surrounding the prisoners of war. Moreover, South Korea was uncompromising in its demand for a unified state. On June 8, 1953, an agreement to the POW problem was reached.
  Those prisoners who refused to return to their countries were allowed to live under a neutral supervising commission for three months. At the end of this period, those who still refused repatriation would be released. Among those who refused repatriation were 22 American and British POWs, all but two of whom chose to defect to the People's Republic of China.
  A final armistice agreement was reached on July 27, 1953. The United Nations Command, Chinese People's Liberation Army, and North Korea People's Army agreed to an armistice ending the fighting. The agreement established a 4-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone along the armistice line, effectively dividing Korea into two separate countries. Although most troops and all heavy weapons were to be removed from the area, it has been heavily armed by both sides since the end of the fighting.
caption: Site of negotiations in 1951
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