Vol. 64/No.18 May 8, 2000

New documents show U.S. military role in execution of civilians in Korean War

BY BRIAN TAYLOR

The widely presumed fact that the reactionary south Korean regime executed thousands of political prisoners and civilians without a trial during the years surrounding the 1950-53 Korean War have been verified through recently released "top secret" documents held by Washington.

Accompanying this release—hidden for half a century—is proof that U.S. general Douglas MacArthur, who commanded the south Korean military then, knew about at least one of the mass killings. It involved 200 people who never saw a trial, but were taken out to sea, shot, and thrown off a ship.

Stories revealed

Despite the fact that south Korean records of the massacre appear to have been destroyed, and only brief mentions of some of the incidents are written into U.S. military reports that have been suppressed until recently, several U.S. and south Korean military personnel have come forward with testimonies that match what south Korean victims' families have been saying for years. In addition, bones from mass burial sites have now been found.

One U.S. military cop, in a report to his company commander, described "extreme cruelty" exercised against prisoners by the south Korean regime. He and several other witnesses reported that up to 300 prisoners, including young children, were killed by south Korean military police atop a mountain 155 miles southeast of Seoul.

According to documents dug up by U.S. National Archives researcher Lee Do-young, Army attaché Lt. Col. Bob Edwards wrote a report back to the U.S. Army that 1,800 political prisoners were summarily executed by south Korean forces at Taejon, 93 miles south of Seoul.

"Thousands of political prisoners were executed within weeks after fall of Seoul to prevent their possible release by advancing enemy [north Korean] troops," Edwards wrote. "Orders for execution undoubtedly came from top."

"There was no time for trials for them. Communists were streaming down. It (summary execution) was a common practice at the time," huffed retired south Korean Rear Adm. Nam Sang-hui. Nam said in July 1950, as a Navy commander, he authorized three ships to carry 200 people out to sea off the port of Pohang. They were shot by south Korean cops and dumped overboard, weighted down with rocks so they would sink to the bottom of the sea. Nam argued that the "critical situation for South Korea" necessitated the cold-blooded terminations.

The Korean War started on June 25, 1950, as troops from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea crossed the 38th parallel, in a effort to boot U.S. occupation forces out of the southern region of Korea.

Relatives of the deceased described truckloads of prisoners passing through their towns into the mountains never to be seen again. They said that many people who were executed had not been convicted of any crime.

Washington's bloody role

While many of the reports in the big-business press attempt to polish the Pentagon's role, reducing it to mere observers of the massacres, this portrayal is false. "The Americans cannot escape the charge that they condoned, if not supported, the massacres. After all, those soldiers killed these people with rifles and bullets the Americans gave them," said Do-young. Reports of mass shootings were circulated routinely among the Army brass, according to the researchers' findings.

Beside the fact that MacArthur knew of the killings, U.S. soldiers have come forward about massacres carried out against civilians, the most infamous of which is that at No Gun Ri.

Using a pretext that north Korean soldiers were advancing, U.S. troops drove two villages of peasants from their homes. As peasants fled on railroad tracks, U.S. planes bombed an area where they rested. As hundreds died, others ran underneath a nearby railroad bridge to hide. U.S. soldiers opened fire on hundreds of Korean civilians, mowing them down in a machine-gun blitz. "We just annihilated them," admitted ex-machine gunner Norman Tinkler. The U.S. government locked away the truth about this gruesome event for 50 years.

Associated Press researchers uncovered several other incidents, two of which involved U.S. troops using machine-guns and mortars to attack civilians. In another case, a bridge was blown up by U.S. troops with full knowledge that civilians were streaming across it. Researchers also report that in declassified U.S. Army documents, they found "standing orders to shoot civilians along the warfront to guard against North Korean soldiers disguised in white clothes of Korean peasants." There have been protests in south Korea by victims' families demanding compensation for the killings.

Desire for reunification unbroken

The newly released proof of the massacres comes at a time when the desire of the Korean people to reunify their country remains high. According to Seoul, about 1.2 million people there who were alive during the war have families living in the north. A summit between Seoul and Pyongyang is scheduled to take place as early as June, where developing closer ties, among other things, will be discussed. It would be the first such meeting since the Korean War was touched off 50 years ago.

Washington spearheaded the war against the people of Korea in the 1950s and imposed the division of the country. It maintains 37,000 troops on the border between north and south to enforce it.

Pyongyang has reiterated its demand that U.S. troops be withdrawn from south Korea, saying their presence is a hindrance to talks between the two Koreas.

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