Armistice negotiations started on July 10, 1951, when representatives of UNC, the Republic of Korea, the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, and the (north) Korean People’s Army met at Kaesong to discuss ending the fighting on the Korean Peninsula. After first developing and agreeing on an agenda for the peace talks, the negotiators began working on the actual armistice. Talks did not go smoothly, with frequent and sometimes lengthy breaks in the negotiations. The location for the talks also moved from Kaesong, in DPRK territory, to Panmunjom, closer to the front lines.
For two years, the negotiators discussed where the military demarcation line would be drawn, how a ceasefire would be enacted and enforced, and disposition of prisoners of war by both sides. The POW issue was the biggest impediment to an agreement and was not decided until May 1953, and a final agreement was not reached until July 19, 1953. In preparation for the signing ceremony, the communists and UNC each prepared nine copies of the agreement: three copies in English, three in Chinese, and three in Korean. The Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in a multi-stage, multi-location sequence on July 27 and 28, 1953.
The first signatures were applied at the official negotiation pavilion in Panmunjom. Lieutenant General William K. Harrison Jr. (representing UNC) and General Nam Il (representing the Korean People's Army and Chinese Volunteers) signed 18 identical tri-language copies of the document simultaneously. This ceremony took exactly ten minutes. Immediately after the Panmunjom ceremony, the documents were flown by helicopter to the United Nations base camp at Munsan, later memorialized as Camp Pelham. There, General Mark W. Clark, Commander-in-Chief of United Nations Command, countersigned the documents. The documents were then dispatched across the front lines to the communists. They were flown to Pyongyang where DPRK leader Kim Il Sung, as Commander of North Korean Forces, signed them at his underground command bunker. The documents were then moved to Kaesong, where Chinese Commander Peng Dehuai, as Commander of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, appended his signature. Because his signing was the final required step to validate the paperwork, Peng Dehuai signed last.
Twelve hours after the initial 10:00 AM Panmunjom signing, at 10:00 PM, July 27, 1953, the ceasefire officially went into effect across the peninsula. After the signing ceremony, the communist side, UNC, and the MAC each retained two sets, with one copy in each language per set.
Editor's Note: The copy of the Armistice Agreement in the UNC Armistice Room on Camp Humphreys is a later reproduction of the agreement, not one of the original copies signed at Panmunjom. Also, the table in the Armistice Room is a piece of the table Gen. Clark signed the agreement on at Munsan. After the signing ceremony, the table was cut into three pieces, with one going to UNC Headquarters in Tokyo, one going to the ROK Government, and one retained by UNC in Korea. Today, the UNC Headquarters piece is in the Armistice Room, the ROK piece is on display at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan, and the UNC piece is held by UNCMAC at Camp Bonifas.