North Korea: America's Forgotten Enemy: The Post War Years

[Bugfatty300]

With Sept 11th, the war in Iraq and the War on Terrorism and even though Bush labled them as part of the AOE, North Korea has taken a back seat to the Iraqis and Afghanistan, even though they threaten us with nuclear weapons and are openly developing missiles which can strike the U.S.

Everybody knows the Korean War right? 1950-1953. Ended in a stalemate with 3 million people killed. No peace treaty. Just a fragile cease fire that has lasted 51 years and has been broken time and again by North Korea.

The POWs-

As most of us know, the North Koreans had atrocious standards of treating POWs. 40% of the American POWs died in Chinese "gulag style" prison camps. Many were executed out right as with the case of Hill 303. God knows how many South Koreans and UN troops perished while in captivity.

In 1993 the U.S. government finally allowed surviving POWs to recount their stories after swearing to keep them classified in 1954. Survivors told stories of brainwashing and medical experiments that were reminiscent of the infamous Japanese Unit 731 of the 2nd world war. The rumors of these inspired the movie "The Manchurian candidate (1962)"

In 1996, declassified documents supported their claims. They show that thousands of American POWs were still unaccounted for and at least 500 were known to have been sent to Russia on Stalin's orders in the 1950s. Their where abouts have not been uncovered despite a continuing Russian investigation.

Acts of Aggression in 1966 -1978.

In 1966 North Korea all but re-ignited the Korean War. Believing that America would be slow to respond due to its increasing presence in Vietnam, North Korea began its infiltration campaign. Specially trained commandos were sent across the DMZ. Several commandos made it to the capital where they intended to assassinate the South Korean President. The plot failed however when the Commandos were killed in a shoot out with Soul police.

The Koreans not only attacked South Korean targets, they openly engaged U.S. soldiers in firefights. The NK raiders even went as far as planting bombs in barrack's filled with sleeping soldiers. In all U.S. soldiers were killed in the fighting.

Here are all of the accounts of U.S. soldiers killed by The North Korean People's Army between 1966 and 1978 that I know of.

1966: 3 U.S. soldiers of the 27th Inf., 2nd Inf. Division were killed by North Korean soldiers in an ambush,

1967: One year later another U.S. soldier from the same unit was killed in a North Korean ambush.

-A month later another is killed in similar circumstances.

1966: North Korean commandos plant a bomb in a U.S. Army Barracks killing 4 U.S. soldiers

- In August of the same year, North Koreans ambush a construction team of the 13th Engineers killing three U.S. soldiers.

1969: A lone Jeep carrying 4 U.S. soldiers is ambushed. All 4 were killed and their bodies mutilated.

1975: 2 U.S. soldiers are killed in an attack on a U.N. maintenance crew.

1976: Perhaps the worst and most ridiculous murder of U.S. soldiers is the "Axe Murder Incident." In which 2 U.S. soldiers, a major and a captain, were hacked to death by North Korean Soldiers for pruning a Poplar Tree on a U.N. compound in front of foreign U.N. peacekeepers and press photographers.

In all 21 U.S. soldiers have been openly murdered by North Korea on or near the DMZ.


Today-

In the Early 90s President Clinton signed the 1994 treaty giving billions of aid to North Korea for them to halt their development of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.

Well in 1998 to everyone's surprise. North Korea reveals a new missile capable of reaching Japan and basically threatens the U.S. with "Dire consequences" if the aid was withdrawn. Nothing was done.

In 2000. SoS Albright is promised by NK officials that they have no plans for further missile development. In January 2001 the South Korean government warns the U.S. that NK has began development of a missile capable of reaching mainland USA. The North Koreans admit President Bush refuses to give the North Koreans an audience with out including delegates from Japan, ROK, Russia and China. Nothing was done.

Then in 2003. They dropped the bombshell when the North Korean representative told James Kelly that North Korea has nuclear weapons and will use them 'soon' then looked Kelly dead in eyes and said "Now what are you going to do about it?"

Americans do not want a war with North Korea. Americans would love to remove the 37,000 troops from Korea and leave it to the U.N. but as many can tell North Korea is seemingly working its self into an obsession with drawing America deeper into East Asian affairs.


THE ATTACHMENT

On the left side of this attachment is a poster released by North Korea and put around their country shortly after the revelation of their nuclear program.

On the right is a photo of Major Arthur G. Bonifas and his companion being descended upon by North Korean troops armed with machetes and hatchets. If you look to the far right you can see the Poplar tree and the latter that was being used to prune the branches.

Sources
http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/mia-russ.htm

http://www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c1900s/yr65/fkorea1966.htm
http://members.terracom.net/~vfwpost/opn-PB.html
Book: US Army Historical Foundation

 

[YotoKiller]

Whats that other pic on the bottem? A executed GI?

1976: Perhaps the worst and most ridiculous murder of U.S. soldiers is the "Axe Murder Incident." In which 2 U.S. soldiers, a major and a captain, were hacked to death by North Korean Soldiers for pruning a Poplar Tree on a U.N. compound in front of foreign U.N. peacekeepers and press photographers.

Operation Paul Bunyan! After that incident, both countries mobilized their militaries. Ford was about order the bombing of Pyonyang. But in the end they finneshed what they sat out to do. They cut down the WHOLE tree under the escort of 2,000 ROK troops and a company of MPs with a whole division with the support of 16 tanks and 30 attack helicopters and a B-52 squadron carrying nukes.

Just think of it. WWIII was nearly started over who owned a tree in the middle of Korea. A truly bizzare moment in history.

 

[joespaniel]

Some day they will push us too far, and we will stop sending the millions of tons of food that keeps them from mass starvation.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

It's the Chinese who're providing most of those types of foreign aid.

 

[_Philospher_]

Some day they will push us too far, and we will stop sending the millions of tons of food that keeps them from mass starvation.

Indeed. What angers me the most about such a scenario is that the North Korean people will suffer for Kim and his corrupt and mentally misguided administration.

 

[joespaniel]

It's the Chinese who're providing most of those types of foreign aid.

Used to. Now South Korea provides about one third of the total.

And the US still spends alot of money on the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) for emergency food aid to North Korea. Why? I don't know...

 

[Bizon77]

1976: Perhaps the worst and most ridiculous murder of U.S. soldiers is the "Axe Murder Incident." In which 2 U.S. soldiers, a major and a captain, were hacked to death by North Korean Soldiers for pruning a Poplar Tree on a U.N. compound in front of foreign U.N. peacekeepers and press photographers.

Operation Paul Bunyan! After that incident, both countries mobilized their militaries. Ford was about order the bombing of Pyonyang. But in the end they finneshed what they sat out to do. They cut down the WHOLE tree under the escort of 2,000 ROK troops and a company of MPs with a whole division with the support of 16 tanks and 30 attack helicopters and a B-52 squadron carrying nukes.

Whoa. I never heard of that. Whats the deal behind what went on there? Why did the North Koreans kill those guys? Was it because they didn't want the tree cut down? Why didn't anybody help them? Why was everybody determined to cut down that tree?

Are the North Koreans that bold as to kill Americans on a UN base infront witnesses and cameras?

 

[blindside]

I thought a sniper took that man trying to cut the Christmas tree. Guess it was an incorrect version of this story.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Whoa. I never heard of that. Whats the deal behind what went on there? Why did the North Koreans kill those guys? Was it because they didn't want the tree cut down? Why didn't anybody help them? Why was everybody determined to cut down that tree?

Are the North Koreans that bold as to kill Americans on a UN base infront witnesses and cameras?

I thought that would confuse some people.

Ok here is the story.

A work detail of some South Korean workers escorted by 2 American officers and one ROK officer began to cut some branches of of a large tree that was blocking the view of a guard tower. Their intent was not to cut down the tree but to prune some branches.

For reasons that has never been found out a Platoon of North Korean soldiers crossed over the check point and confronted the officers. The North Korean commander walked up to the Major and told him that there would be trouble if the workers did not cease cuting the tree.

The American Major, stationed at the DMZ, probably more than used to hollow threats from North Korean soldiers, ignored him and ordered the workers to go about their work.

The North Korean commander then revoved his wrist watch and yelled the order "mikun-nom chu ki cha" (Kill the US soldiers) and the Major was struck from behind in the back with an axe. Before the other officer could draw his pistol he was rushed and was hacked to peices by the North Koreans. The Korean workers then joined the maylee armed with hedge shears and hatchets. One of the workers jumped in the 2 1/2 ton truck and drove it through the North Koreans and over the Major's body in an attempt to protect him. Can't remember his name but he was given a medal for his actions.

And as soon as it had begun the North Koreans fled back across the Check-point leaving the 2 Americans dead.

In the picture you can see the Major being struck from behind by the North Korean commander.

 

[JoeCivFan]

I dont know if any of you remember this, but a few months back, North Korean shipments of uranium were found in the waters of the middle east, near Iraq and Iran. I came to the conclusion that they were sending Iraq or Iran uranium to build nukes. And now as we all know, Iran is building nukes. I think Bush knows his stuff when he named the nations in the Axis of Evil.

The fact of the matter here is North Korea has entered the Nuclear Neighborhood and they cant be stopped because they wont hesitate to fure some nukes and we know it and so do they. It will probably just end up in a nother world war involving the exchange of nukes and possible the death and destruction of the world.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Moderator Action: Let this not be turned into yet another OTseque thread...

 

[blindside]

Moderator Action: Let this not be turned into yet another OTseque thread...

Well hes talking about the incident from a year ago so it is history.

 

[YotoKiller]

@bugfaty: Have you heard the North Korean side of the story? The NK officer claimed he was offended by Bonifus by not saluting him like proper military officers. The other part is that the American Lt. threw an axe at the North Korean officer who then caught it in mid air and THEN gave the order to attack.

And the US still spends alot of money on the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) for emergency food aid to North Korea. Why? I don't know...

I think its a vain attempt to buy them off for a while. The aid they recieve is only used to feed their army. The people are already eating the bark off of trees.

 

[Bugfatty300]

My thread topic is about North Korea's total disregard for international treaties and agressive actions. That have brought the world to brink of WWIII and why the U.S. was and is pretty much powerless to stop them with out breeding a hot war with the North Koreans.

So lets try to keep it on that topic at hand.

 

[Case]

The POWs-

As most of us know, the North Koreans had atrocious standards of treating POWs. 40% of the American POWs died in Chinese "gulag style" prison camps. Many were executed out right as with the case of Hill 303. God knows how many South Koreans and UN troops perished while in captivity.

While I certainly don't want to excuse the behaviour of the North Koreans, it should be noted here that American POWs had much higher casualty rates then POWs from the other UN countries. The basic cause of this was that the Americans were ill-prepared to be taken prisoner - once captured their morale collapsed, and POWs acted in their own interest, without concern on how it impacted on others. POWs from countries such as Britain and Turkey suffered fairly low casualties, largely as the POWs morale held up and the POWs worked together to survive (the Turks were particularly notable in this regards). In recognition of this, the US Army implimented and publicised codes of conduct for POWs in future wars which were designed to maintain disipline and morale in POW camps. There have been quite a few articles on this recently at the US Defence Department's offical site www.defenselink.mil

On a similar topic, while the North Koreans were doubtlessly exreamly brutal, their behaviour can't really be compared to that of the Japanese. I sugest that you read up on how the Japanese treated their POWs before making such comparisons.

 

[Bugfatty300]

BTW, The POW training that was inspired by ordeals in Korea deals more with resisting brainwashing and iterrogation than anything else. Mind you Americans got plenty of experiance on how to survive in death camps in WWII.

On a similar topic, while the North Koreans were doubtlessly exreamly brutal, their behaviour can't really be compared to that of the Japanese. I sugest that you read up on how the Japanese treated their POWs before making such comparisons.

I never made a comparisson to Japanese treatment of POWs. I said that released documents are simply "reminecent/reminders" of the Unit 731 incident. Maybe you need to read up on what exactly the documents show and what Unit 731 was.

But since you brought it up Maybe, you need to read the book "AMERICAN POWs in Korea: Sixteen Personal Accounts." You'll see just how simular Japanese camps and N Korean/Chinese camps were.

 

[Bizon77]

I thought that would confuse some people.

Ok here is the story.

A work detail of some South Korean workers escorted by 2 American officers and one ROK officer began to cut some branches of of a large tree that was blocking the view of a guard tower. Their intent was not to cut down the tree but to prune some branches.

For reasons that has never been found out a Platoon of North Korean soldiers crossed over the check point and confronted the officers. The North Korean commander walked up to the Major and told him that there would be trouble if the workers did not cease cuting the tree.

The American Major, stationed at the DMZ, probably more than used to hollow threats from North Korean soldiers, ignored him and ordered the workers to go about their work.

The North Korean commander then revoved his wrist watch and yelled the order "mikun-nom chu ki cha" (Kill the US soldiers) and the Major was struck from behind in the back with an axe. Before the other officer could draw his pistol he was rushed and was hacked to peices by the North Koreans. The Korean workers then joined the maylee armed with hedge shears and hatchets. One of the workers jumped in the 2 1/2 ton truck and drove it through the North Koreans and over the Major's body in an attempt to protect him. Can't remember his name but he was given a medal for his actions.

And as soon as it had begun the North Koreans fled back across the Check-point leaving the 2 Americans dead.

In the picture you can see the Major being struck from behind by the North Korean commander.

Thank you! Explained alot. Except why the North Koreans didn't want the tree to be pruned. Or why the nearby UN peacekeepers didn't help them.

 

[YotoKiller]

The basic cause of this was that the Americans were ill-prepared to be taken prisoner - once captured their morale collapsed, and POWs acted in their own interest, without concern on how it impacted on others. POWs from countries such as Britain and Turkey suffered fairly low casualties, largely as the POWs morale held up and the POWs worked together to survive (the Turks were particularly notable in this regards).

There were many reasons why American POW death rates were rediculously high. The biggest reason was simply because North Koreans and Chinese absolutely despised Americans a great deal more than the British and Turks. Another big reason is the fact that North Koreans did not treat wounded and would not allow other POWs to look after them instead putting them aside and waiting for them to die. Kind of like the "death houses" of Japanese prison camps. Another being that many were simply executed. The reason you gave certainly didn't help the situation but was by far not the MAIN cause since most of the deaths were directly caused by their Captors.

 

[MattE]

Really it doesn't matter if they were ill prepared to be taken prisoner, by the laws of the geneva convention clothing, food, shelter, medical tretment etc. all should've been taken care of the North Koreans & Chinese.

This may seem a bit OT but seems appropriate for this thread. Last year a freight ship was intercepted by Australian coastal patrols off the Australian coast. On the ship was found cocaine, a LOT of cocaine. The entire crew of the ship were North Korean. They were all arrested and the ship comendered. Upon interigation of the North Korean crew it was descovered that the ship with its crew were running drugs into Australia. This was not only done with full knowledge by the NK government but was also APPROVED by Kim himself. And with most other resources in NK the money was to be used to fund their military.

Like I said maybe a bit off topic but still of interest for this thread.

Another thing I have noticed that the North Koreans hate the south and westerners because of their high quality of life while the NK citizens starve in the streets (Another benifit of communism). The only ones that the NKs should hate is their own leadership. They give everything to their military and let the civilians starve in a hope that they - the civs - will join the military to gain the benifits of a "better" life. No wonder they have the 3rd largest military in the world.

I personally believe that's about time we all took a stand against that madman KIM Chong-il. I supported the war in Iraq. I don't care if there aren't any WMD (which I do believe he, Saddam, was thrying to obtain) or if it was for oil (which I don't believe it was). I do feel safer knowing that there's one less madman/dictator in the world.

 

[joespaniel]

Whoa. I never heard of that. Whats the deal behind what went on there? Why did the North Koreans kill those guys? Was it because they didn't want the tree cut down? Why didn't anybody help them? Why was everybody determined to cut down that tree?

Are the North Koreans that bold as to kill Americans on a UN base infront witnesses and cameras?

There is only one news source in North Korea.

http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

The people have no idea what really happens in the rest of the world. They are fed a steady diet of hate against America and their colonial puppets in the South.