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| Aug. 5 |
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Gen. Ridgway broke off armistice talks, charging that Communist troops had violated the demilitarization regulations in Kaes ng. Talks resumed five days later, but they were deadlocked on the question of a truce demarcation line. On Aug. 23, the Communists suspended negotiations because of an alleged bombing of Kaesng by UN planes. | 1 |
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| Sept. 23 |
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| UN forces in Korea captured “Heartbreak Ridge” after 37 days of hard fighting to secure strategic heights north of Yanggu. | 2 |
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| Oct. 8 |
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| The high command of the Communist forces in Korea agreed to resume armistice talks at a new site—P'anmunjm. UN and Communist liaison officers held a series of meetings from Oct. 10 to Oct. 22 to resolve procedural issues. Formal negotiations were renewed on Oct. 25 for the first time since August. | 3 |
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| Nov. 27 |
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| Truce delegates from both sides met in plenary session and approved a provisional cease-fire line to go into effect if armistice terms could be negotiated within 30 days. | 4 |
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| Dec. 27 |
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| The 30-day armistice “trial period” lapsed, with neither side proposing an extension. Armistice talks remained stalled on two issues: prisoner exchanges and the building of airfields in North Korea during the prospective armistice. | 5 |
| Late in the year, Rhee created his own political party, the Liberal Party, and he used it to control the National Assembly and amend the constitution. He also used assassination to dispatch dissenting voices: Song Chin-u in 1945, Y Un-hyng in 1947, and Kim Ku (1876–1949); other critics of Rhee, such as Pak Hn-yng (1900–55), had fled to the North (Oct. 1946), and still others had died of illness. Thus Rhee's power remained secure. | 6 |
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