MUNSAN: No progress was reported after the 24th session of the Kaesong cease-fire talks today [Aug 14] which lasted for two hours and 40 minutes. Before the formal session, UN and Communist negotiators and their liaison officers had an hour’s meeting. Details of their talks were not revealed but they were believed to have discussed the Communists’ request for immunity for their vehicles following the alleged allied air attack on one of them. An official UN communique ... said the question of the location of the demilitarised zone was no nearer solution when today’s session ended.

It added that further efforts by Vice-Admiral Joy, chief UN delegate, to clarify the UN request for a defensible line through logical military reasoning, were “without tangible results”. The next meeting will be held at 11 a.m. local time tomorrow. Today’s cease-fire session coincided with the broadcasting by Pyongyang radio of promise by the Chinese troops in Korea that American forces would be chased from the country “to the last soldier”. The broadcast quoted a … resolution addressed to North Korean Supreme Commander, Kim Il-sung, in the name of “all officers and men of the Chinese forces in Korea”.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2026