Operation Big Switch

North Korean POWs on US Army trucks during Operation Big Switch. The POWs have ripped off their clothing and strewed it along the road. Some of the clothing is burning.

Operation Big Switch was the repatriation of all remaining prisoners of the Korean War. Ceasefire talks had been going on between the North Korean, Chinese and United Nations Command (UNC) forces since 1951, with the main point of contention being the repatriation of all prisoners to their home countries, in accordance with Article 118 of the 1949 Geneva Convention. China and North Korea wanted prisoners to be compulsorily repatriated as outlined by the Geneva Convention but the UNC insisted that prisoners who wished to remain where they were be allowed to do so.[1] After talks dragged on for two years, the Chinese and North Koreans relented on this point, and the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed on 27 July 1953.

  1. ^ Pembroke, Michael (2018). Korea - where the American century began. Hardie Grant Books. pp. 184–198. ISBN 9781743793930.