ability to engage face-to-face when the situation demands. Origin and legal status United Nations Command operates under the mandates of UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 82, 83, 84 and 85. These passed while the Soviet Union was boycotting the UN for awarding China's seat in the Security Council to the Republic of China. While the UN had some military authority through Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, early Cold War tensions meant that the forces envisaged in those articles had yet to become reality. Thus the UN had little practical ability to raise a military force in response to the North Korean invasion of the South. Consequently, the UNSC designated the United States as the executive agent for leading a "unified command" under the UN flag. As it was a designated body, the UN exercised little control over the combat forces. This represented the first attempt at collective security under the UN system. When the warring parties signed the Korean Armistice Agreement on 27 July 1953, the commander delivered the Agreement to the UN. In August 1953, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution “noting with approval” the Armistice Agreement, a step that was critical for the UN to take the next step of organizing the 1954 Geneva Conference meant to negotiate a diplomatic peace between North and South Korea. The adoption of the Korean Armistice Agreement in the UN General Assembly underwrites UN Command's current role of maintaining and enforcing the Armistice Agreement. The role of the United States as the executive agent for the unified command has led to questions over its continued validity. Most notably, in 1994, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali wrote in a letter to the North Korean Foreign Minister that: The UN's official position is that the Korean War-era Security Council and General Assembly resolutions remain in force. This was evidenced in 2013 when North Korea announced unilateral abrogation of the Armistice Agreement: UN spokesman Martin Nesirky asserted that since the Armistice Agreement had been adopted by the General Assembly, no single party could dissolve it unilaterally. The UNC continues to serve as the signatory and party of the Armistice opposite the Korean People's Army. Establishment in 1950 After troops of North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 82 calling on North Korea to cease hostilities and withdraw to the 38th parallel. Two