Navy Reservist Lieutenant Paul Eady recently returned to New Zealand after six months monitoring the military armistice in Korea with United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC). As a Regular Force marine engineer LT Eady had never been posted overseas, so was delighted when he was asked to deploy to the Korea Peninsula as a Reservist.

After two weeks of pre-deployment training, which included land mine awareness; chemical, biological and radiological nuclear training; first aid training; language lessons and advice on using an interpreter, Paul arrived in Panmunjom in October 2009. Panmunjom straddles North and South Korea and is known as the "truce village" as it is near the site of the signing of the 1953 Armistice and is where meetings relating to the truce have been held since.

One thing that soon struck LT Eady about the Demilitarised Zone (the four kilometre buffer zone between North and South) was the sense of general disquiet.

"The UNCMAC Secretary says monitoring this armistice feels a bit like watching National Geographic on television; you've got lions lying around a watering hole and hyenas on the other side," he says, "And it's true. Everything is peaceful but there is a tension nevertheless. I didn't lose sleep over it, but I was certainly conscious that something could happen at any time, and there was always potential for an incident."

LT Eady was given a one bedroom apartment at Camp Boniface, a military camp he describes as "not unlike Waiouru". Although there was plenty of American food on offer he says he preferred Korean fare, and unusually for a New Zealand Defence Force person on operational deployment he was able to drink alcohol, as the New Zealand deployment to UNCMAC is not a "dry" mission: "In Korea, in order to build relationships, you have to be able to share a beer or Soju (the national drink). Soju, particularly is a big part of doing business in Korean culture."

Aspects of deploying to the DMZ took some getting used to. "It's not like living in Seoul; you can't just walk out and do what you like. Movement can be restricted. New Zealand UNCMAC personnel are not allowed to drive in Korea, so we're quite dependant on others. The bridge across the Imjin river (to South Korea) also closes at a certain time and if you're not back you just have to stay overnight."

As UNCMAC's 'eyes and ears' on the ground, LT Eady's main job was to give advice to the military command: "I had to be familiar with the Armistice Agreement, the subsequent agreements, and be able to interpret the rules and regulations. Precedents have been set but kiwis and others can add value by bringing fresh perspectives. I also observed, monitored, and reported on the DMZ. Now I think of it, I was a bit like a school prefect!"

LT Eady is quick to point out that UNCMAC personnel are monitoring compliance to a ceasefire, not a peace agreement.

"We don't literally observe the border, we monitor compliance to the 1953 Armistice Agreement. Observing the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that delineates between the North Korean and UN Command controlled areas, and watching for people crossing that line is done by Korean soldiers on both sides, in guard posts and observation posts throughout the DMZ," he says.

"Monitoring compliance to the armistice requires us to maintain an awareness of what's happening in our Area of Operations and know if activities breach the rules agreed between the two sides. Such activities might be troop and weapon movements, the building of defensive positions, the movement of certain types of materials into the DMZ (like diesel fuel), aircraft operations inside the DMZ, misidentification of personnel in the DMZ, and crossings of the military demarcation line between the two sides.

"Where it is identified that breaches have been made by either side, it is our job to investigate them and report findings and recommendations to the United Nations Command (UNC) and the Military Armistice Commission (MAC)."

There was also a Duty Officer aspect to LT Eady's position: "I was there, so that if at two am the North Koreans want to send a note and ask for a meeting, someone is present to facilitate that."

The United Nations mission in Korea differs from other 'blue hat' (UN) missions because it is commanded by the United States, instead of the UN Security Council. The Commander of the UNC in Korea reports to the US Government who then report to the Security Council or the UN General Assembly.

"Mostly it works well, but one problem with the line of reporting is that it can potentially downplay the multi-national aspect of UNCMAC, or encourage people to view the conflict as a bilateral issue between the two Korea's and the United States, rather than between North Korea and the United Nations who are represented by the 16 UN member states that form the coalition in Korea," says LT Eady.

Reflecting on the situation facing Korea today, LT Eady concludes, "Peace wasn't going to be negotiated overnight but I don't think anyone dreamed it would be 57 years and counting. It may be hard to combine the two different Koreas now. The older generation has an emotional desire to see reunification but the younger generation sees the practical difficulties with it. It is a hugely complicated issue. Many people think unity would be nice but then they have seen what happened in Germany, which is still struggling with the East/West reconciliation and the social and economic difficulties that resulted from that."