Memorandum on Massacre as US Policy
PYONGYANG, October 29 (KCNA) --
The DPRK Institute of National Reunification on Oct. 27 issued memorandum
accusing the U.S. troops of their hair- raising massacre
and unethical crimes committed against Koreans.
Recalling that the recent disclosure of fractional part of the
massacre of civilians committed by U.S. in the rogun-ri
area, Yongdong county, North Chungchong Province, during the Korean War touched
off a strong condemnation across south Korea, the memorandum says:
After the disclosure of the massacre in Rogun-ri, many south
Koreans who have been forced to keep silence on it for scores of years due to
the suppression by the U.S. and the south Korean authorities are
coming out to testify to the crimes one after another.
As a result, the whole story about their atrocities is brought
to light as the days go by.
On Aug. 15, 1946 more than 2,600 workers of the Hwasun Coal Mine,
South Jolla Province, were on their way to Kwangju to participate in a
rally protesting against GIs' plunder. Seeing them, U.S. soldiers bayoneted and
shot to death hundreds of them. The dead bodies remained on the scene for one
week as the workers were not allowed to carry them.
On Aug. 3, 1950 they blew up Toksung bridge in Koryong
county, North Kyongsang Province, killing hundreds of civilians and also blasted
Waegwan bridge in Chilgok county, leaving hundreds of people dead.
American massacre of civilians was also reported in South Chungchong and
South Kyongsang provinces and in the area along the River Raktong
and other areas.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the massacres committed
by the U.S. troops.
Their killings of Koreans have a history of more than a
hundred years. They began invading Korea aboard the pirate ship General Sherman
more than 130 years ago. They killed Koreans as they hunted natives in America.
Typical of their massacre in the early period of their aggression on Korea was
their killing of over 350 guiltless people after their reinvasion of Kanghwa Island in 1871.
The U.S. killing of Korean people became more
brutal after their military occupation of south Korea.
When the popular resistance broke out on Jeju Island in April
1948, the U.S. imperialists shot and stabbed people to death or put them to
death by hanging or buried them alive and threw them into the sea, killing them.
Even the UN Temporary Committee on Korea could not but admit
in a report on the tragedy on Jeju island that the U.S. forces killed more than
35,000 people or over one fourth of the population of the island, in the period
from April to October 1948 under the direct command of Robert, head of the U.S.
military advisory group.
At least 109,000 people of south Korea were killed by the U.S.
imperialists in 1949 alone.
The U.S. committed shocking massacres after
igniting the Korean War of aggression.
They killed as many as one million civilians across south
Korea in one year after the outbreak of the war.
They killed more than one million civilians during their
temporary occupation of some areas of the north.
In Sinchon county, South Hwanghae Province, alone they killed
more than 35,380 people or one fourth of its entire population in a little over
50 days.
Lording it over south Korea after the war, they ruthlessly
killed people as their hunting and shooting targets and playthings and for
pleasure, regardless of men and women, young and old.
The number of the cases of atrocities committed by them in
south Korea since the August 15, 1945 liberation of the country is more than
270,000 and these took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, counting
only these reported after the war.
The gravity of their massacre of Koreans lies in that this was
a state organized crime committed in pursuance of the U.S. hostile policy toward
the Korean nation.
Even according to the recent AP report, the massacre in Rogun-ri was not committed by
GIs alone but on the order of the Far Eastern U.S.
Forces Command and the Eighth U.S. Army Command and it was spearheaded by
military officers ranging from company commanders to division commanders.
Thousands of south Koreans were killed during the Kwangju
popular uprising in may 1980. Gleysteen, the then U.S. Ambassador to south
Korea, in his message to the U.S. State Department said that the U.S. agreed to
the south Korean authorities' use of forces under the combined forces command.
This is clear evidence that their massacre of Korean people
was an organized crime committed in line with U.S. Policy.
This notwithstanding, the U.S. ruling quarters refuse to admit
their crimes and are employing a crafty plot to evade their responsibility for
them. Moreover, the south Korean authorities are resorting to a clumsy trick to
conceal the U.S. atrocities at any cost.
The historical facts and lessons go to prove that as long as
the U.S. imperialists persist in their moves for aggression and their troops
remain in south Korea, the south Korean people can neither live in peace even a
moment nor can even a day pass by without seeing the blood shed by Koreans.
The United States should honestly admit its crimes and
unconditionally apologize and compensate to the Korean people for the damage
done to them for so many years.
Copyright © 1999 The People's Korea. All rights reserved.