The neutral nations originally tasked with monitoring inter-Korean peace could play a role in building North-South trust, the Polish ambassador here said at a conference at the Polish chancery on Monday.

The Polish Embassy organized the day-long conference, which focused on the role of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission on the Korean Peninsula, as part of events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

“In my opinion, the NNSC could potentially play an important support role in confidence-building measures on the peninsula,” said Polish Ambassador to South Korea Krzysztof Majka in introductory remarks.

The NNSC was supposed help keep the peace by carrying out inspections and investigations to prevent reinforcements being brought in by either side, including additional military personnel or new weapons.

Originally, four nations ― Switzerland, Sweden, Poland and Czechoslovakia ― were invited as “neutral nations” to supervise the cease-fire, but they almost immediately encountered resistance from the militaries of North and South Korea and the United States.

Its original role was made impossible as early as 1956. North Korea never permitted full access to Polish and Czech monitors. Inspectors in the South were greeted with hostility, the South Korean National Assembly even voted to expel them altogether.

They were not expelled, but the NNSC’s role was reduced to recording information provided to them and, in 1958, the United States secretly deployed nuclear weapons in South Korea.

“Perhaps, following a creative way of thinking which is strongly advocated by President Park Geun-hye, and which has become the motto of her policies, (such a role) could also be introduced to future tasks of the NNSC,” the Polish envoy said.

After the Cold War ended North Korea expelled the Czech and Polish NNSC staff altogether in 1993 and 1995.

In the South, only a token staff of the Swedish and Swiss delegations remains in the Demilitarized Zone. A Polish delegation is invited by them to participate in NNSC activities and support its Swiss and Swedish colleagues.

Maj. Gen. Urs Gerber, head of the NNSC’s Swiss delegation, stressed at the seminar the legitimacy of the commission’s presence. “I have to remind you that the armistice agreement is the legal basis for the existence and the activity of the NNSC,” he said. “As long as it is in force, we are here and we are doing our job.”

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)