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S. Korean Army and Police Massacred Thousands of Political Prisoners during Korean War

The south Korean military and police massacred thousands of political prisoners during the early days of the 1950-53 Korean War, south Korea's vernacular daily Hanguk Ilbo reported on Jan. 6, quoting declassified U.S. documents.

The ruthless execution of political prisoners was revealed by the newly uncovered U.S. military documents at the request of Dr. Lee Do Yong, a Korean-American scholar in New York. Lt. Col. Bob Edward, the U.S. Embassy's military attache at the time, authored two documents dated from September 1950 to May 1951 and submitted them to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

According to the Hanguk Ilbo, Edward said in one of the documents that around 1,800 political prisoners at Taejon Prison, North Cholla Province, were executed over three days in the first week of July 1950, right after the outbreak of the Korean War to "prevent their release by advancing north Korean army". "Orders for execution undoubtedly came from south Korea's top leaders," the report said.

Another declassified document shows that political prisoners in Taegu Prison who had been convicted on charges of "sympathizing with north Korea's communists" were executed in April 1951 in suburban Taegu, a provincial city of North Kyongsang Province. Edward’s reports also indicate a possibility of mass killings at other prisons, saying that south Korean troops and police are believed to have massacred thousands of political offenders right after the DPRK army seized Seoul.

Attached to the documents were scores of photographs showing scenes of the massacres in Taejon and Taegu and U.S. military officers at the scene taking pictures of the execution.

"Political prisoners wearing only shorts were tied up with electric wire in groups of five and then were made to kneel down in front of a ditch before being machine-gunned to death," Song Jae Son, an 88-year-old survivor testified. Mr. Song, who had been engaged in leftist activities, managed to escape the execution with the help of his police friends.

Dr. Lee alleged that some of the executed prisoners were civilians from Cheju Island who had been jailed for their involvement in the Cheju April 3 Mass Uprising.

Bruce Cumings, professor at Chicago University, called for the U.S.’s thorough investigation in the incident, saying that these massacre cases are far and away bigger in scale than the Rogun-ri massacre case. “The U.S. armed forces and the south Korean army were members of the U.N. Forces. The U.S. has a considerable responsibility for the cases as far as high-ranking officials of the U.S. armed forces were at the scene and they did not stop the execution of political prisoners by the south Korean army,” Cumings, a celebrated scholar on modern Korean history, was quoted as saying.

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