General Ridgway's Message to General Kim Il Sung and General Peng Teh-Huai
13 Jul 1951
General Kim Il Sung
General Peng Teh-Huai
In my initial message to you on 30 June, I proposed that our representatives meet aboard a
Danish hospital ship. I suggested this site since it would have afforded equal freedom of
access to both parties. It would have provided a completely neutral atmosphere, free of the menacing
presence of armed troops of either side. It would have provided adequate communications facilities
of all kinds.
Your reply to my message made no reference to my proposed meeting place. Instead you proposed Kaesong.
In the interests of expediting the end of bloodshed and to demonstrate the good faith under which the
United Nations Command was proceeding, I accepted Kaesong as the site for our discussions. In doing so, I
expected that the conditions referred to above, vital to the success of any such discussions, would
be afforded at Kaesong.
In order to provide further assurance that such conditions would, in fact, exist at the conference site,
my liaison officers in their initial meeting with yours on 8 July proposed that a ten mile wide corridor
centered on the Kumchon-Kaesong-Munsan-ni road and limited by Kumchon on the north and Munsan-ni on the
south, thereby established as a neutral zone free of any hostile action by either party. They further
recommended that United Nations forces within this corridor remain south of an east-west line through
the south edge of Kaesong while your forces within this corridor remain north of an east-west line
through the north edge of Kaesong, leaving the town of Kaesong restricted to entry only by those
individuals in the delegation parties.
Agreement on this proposal would have insured freedom of movement to both delegations to and from
the meetings and within the town of Kaesong.
However, your liaison officer declined to agree to this proposal stating that it was not needed to
insure satisfactory conditions at the conference site for both delegations.
To show good faith and to avoid delay, I accepted your assurances instead of my proposal to establish a
neutral zone.
Since the opening of the conference it has been evident that the equality of treatment so essential to the
conduct of armistice negotiations is lacking.
Since the first meeting at Kaesong, your delegation has placed restrictions upon the movements of
our delegation. It has subjected our personnel to the close proximity of your armed guards. It has delayed
and blocked passage of our couriers. It has withheld its cooperation in establishment of two-way
communications with our base, even though it agreed to do so immediately. It has refused admittance to the
conference area of certain personnel in our convoy, which I desired and for whose conduct I stated I assumed
full responsibility.
The extension of the present recess and the delay in resuming the conference of our delegations is solely
due to these unreasonable and unnecessary restrictions against which my representatives have repeatedly
protested.
As pointed out to your representatives by Vice Admiral Joy, my personal representative in the first
meeting of 10 July, the hope for success of these discussions rested upon the good faith of both
sides. With good faith, mutual confidence might be established, an atmosphere of truth created
and the attainment of an honorable and enduring settlement brought measurably nearer.
The record of the United Nations Command delegation to date is open for world inspection. It establishes
beyond any shadow of doubt their honorable intentions and good faith at every stage of the proceedings.
With full and solemn realization of the vital importance of our conferences to all the peoples of the
world, the United Nations Command's delegation is prepared to continue our discussions in the same spirit
of good faith at every stage of the proceedings.
The assurances which I require are simple and few. They include as primary prerequisites the establishment
of an agreed conference area, of suitable extent, completely free of armed personnel of either side. Each
delegation must have complete reciprocity of treatment to include complete and equal freedom of movement
to, from and within the agreed conference area, and complete and equal freedom at all times in the
selection of the personnel in its delegation party to include representatives of the press.
I therefore now propose that a circular area with its center at approximately the center of Kaesong,
and with a five-mile radius, be agreed upon as a neutral zone. The eastern limit of the neutral zone
shall be present point of contact of our forces at Panmunjom. I propose that we both agree to refrain
from hostile acts of any kind within this zone during the entire period of our conference. I propose
that we both agree that the area of the conference site and the roads leading thereto used by personnel
of both delegation parties be completely free of armed personnel.
I further propose that we both agree that the total personnel of each delegation within the neutral
area at any time be limited to a maximum of 150. I propose that we agree that the composition of each
delegation party within the foregoing limit be subject sole to the determination of its commander.
It is understood that personnel to be admitted to the actual conference chamber shall be limited to
those agreed upon by your representatives and mine.
If you agree to these proposals, the present recess can be terminated and the conference resumed
without delay and with some expectation of progress.
Radio-telephone is available to you for communication to me of your reply. If you prefer to send your
reply by liaison officer, I guarantee his safety within my lines during daylight providing you inform me
of the time and route by which he will travel and the manner in which he may be identified.
Should you continue to insist that restrictions are necessary for our personal safety, or for any
other reason, I propose that the conference site be moved to a locality which will afford the few simple
assurances I have specified herein.
(Signed)
M. B. Ridgway
General, United States Army,
Commander in Chief
United Nations Command