“New Zealand must ensure that it is not manipulated into ‘reparticipating’ in a re-activated Korean War,” says Peter
Wilson, Secretary of the NZ Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Society.
“We are concerned by a January article in The Korea Herald which states that later this year New Zealand will be asked
to attend a meeting of all countries that supported the USA in the 1950-53 Korean War. The newspaper reports that these
‘sending states’ will be asked to abide by their 1953 “commitment to reparticipating in the [Korean] war.”
The request will be made by the ‘United Nations Command’ which, despite its name, is not a United Nations Agency. Three
United Nations Secretary Generals (Boutros Ghali, Kofi Annan, and Ban Ki-moon) have all declared that the United Nations
Command has nothing to do with the United Nations. In June 2013 Ban ki-moon’s spokesperson stated, “The UN did not at any time have any role in the command of the forces that operated in Korea in 1950-1953.”
In December 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed resolution GA 3390 (XXX) which stated that it: “Considers that it is necessary to dissolve the ‘United Nations Command’ and withdraw all the foreign troops stationed
in South Korea. This has never been acted upon.
“Through no fault of their own, Koreans have been forced to live in two separate countries since the late 1940s.
Re-activating the war will not bring them back together. Only dialogue, undertaken by all parties with a genuine desire
for rapprochement, can bring back peace to this fractured nation,” Peter Wilson says.
The NZ DPRK Society calls on the New Zealand Government not to agree to ‘reparticipate’ in a new Korean War; not to
attend the end of year meeting to discuss this and to withdraw all NZ Defence personnel assigned to the sham ‘United
Nations Command’.