Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Korean Axe Murder Incident

Episode Date: July 30, 2021

Ever since the cease-fire which ended the Korean war, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea has been a tense stand-off. Standing only a few meters from each other, soldiers from North Korea stand on one side with soldiers from South Korea and the United States on the other. On August 18, 1976, the two sides came as close as they ever have to igniting another war. Learn more about the Korean Axe Murder Incident on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever since the ceasefire which ended the Korean War, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea has been a tent standoff. Standing only a few meters from each other, soldiers from North Korea stand on one side, with soldiers from South Korea and the United States on the other. On October 18, 1976, the two sides came as close as they ever have to igniting another war. Learn more about the Korean Axe Murder Incident on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now.

Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. I've talked many times before about CuriosityStream. if you still haven't gotten a subscription, you really need to consider doing it. CuriosityStream has thousands of educational and documentary programs covering a wide range of subjects. I personally watch Curiosity Stream several times a week, and I've used their programs to get ideas for this podcast, as well as doing show research. You can get an entire year of Curiosity Stream for less than $20. It's so cheap that you almost can't afford to not get it. If you're even remotely curious about the

world you live in, and let's face it, you are because you listen to this podcast, go to everything-dash-everywhere.com slash curiosity stream to start your subscription. Once again, that's everything-dash-everywhere.com slash curiosity stream. The Korean demilitarized zone, or DMZ, runs across the entire Korean peninsula. It's approximately 250 kilometers long and four kilometers wide. Each side of the zone is patrolled by soldiers from North and South Korea within eyesight of other. The DMZ was created with the ceasefire, which was signed on July 27, 1953. The agreement was that both sides would fall back 2,000 meters from where the front line was at the time of the agreement, creating the 4-kilometer-wide zone today. The site of the former front is today

the military demarcation line, which serves as a de facto boundary between North and South Korea. I say de facto because, technically, the war never ended, and neither country recognizes the other. Sitting on the military demarcation line is what is known as the Joint Security Area, also known today as the Truce Village, or as it's known in Korean, Panmun Jom, which was the village just north of the current location before the war. It was here that the events of August 18, 1976 took place. At the time of the incident, the United States had just withdrawn its forces from Vietnam, making the DMZ the only place in Asia where American forces faced off directly with communists. In the Joint Security Area,

there was a large 100-foot poplar tree that blocked the view between one of the checkpoints and one of the observation posts. The checkpoint was at the South Korean end of the Bridge of No Return, which was the location for prisoner exchanges between the north and the south. During the winter months, the two points could see each other because the leaves would have fallen from the tree. But in the summer, the view is obstructed. And it should be noted that the tree lied squarely within the South Korean side of the line. The South Koreans and Americans decided that they were going to prune the tree to improve the sight lines. On October 18, the group of 17 South Korean and Americans went to the tree. Included in the group were American Captain Arthur Boniface and American First Lieutenant Mark Barrett.

It should be noted that the soldiers did not have firearms, as per the agreement which dictated how the truce village was to be operated. After the soldiers began pruning the tree, a group of 15 North Korean soldiers appeared to observe the operation. for about a quarter hour they observed without saying or doing anything. Then suddenly, the North Korean lieutenant in charge ordered the soldiers pruning the tree to stop. Captain Boniface instructed his soldiers to ignore the North Koreans and continue working. The North Koreans then sent a truck over the bridge of no return with 20 soldiers armed with clubs and crowbars. When the North Koreans arrived, they once again ordered the men to stop trimming the tree, and once again Captain Boniface ordered them to continue.

It was then that the North Korean lieutenant in charge shouted to his men, Kill the bastards. The North Koreans then rushed the tree crew with their blunt weapons. The stunned South Koreans dropped the axes that they were using, which were then picked up by the North Koreans. They used the axes to attack the American commanders, Captain Boniface and Lieutenant Barrett. Captain Boniface was immediately knocked to the ground and bludgeoned to death by five North Koreans. Lieutenant Barrett jumped over a small wall and fled to a small tree-filled depression.

The entire incident only lasted about 30 seconds. The American and South Korean forces took the body of Captain Boniface and retreated in their truck. They didn't know where Lieutenant Barrett was. Over the next 90 minutes, North Koreans were observed taking an axe and going into the Depression one by one. A search and rescue operation later that day found the body of Lieutenant Barrett in the Depression, killed by an axe attack. Two American officers were killed and several other American and South Korean soldiers were injured. What happened next brought the United States and North Korea to the brink of war. The first news of the incident actually came from North Korea.

They claimed that they were the victims of an unprovoked assault by the Americans and South Koreans. Their news release stated, quote, Around 10.45 a.m. today, the American imperialist aggressors sent in 14 hoodlums with axes into the joint security area to cut the trees on their own accord, although such a work should have been mutually consented beforehand. Four persons from our side went to the spot to warn them not to continue the work without our consent. Against our persuasion, they attacked our guards en masse and committed a serious provocative act of beating our men, wielding murderous weapons, and depending on the fact that they outnumbered us. Our guards could not but resort to self-defense measures under the circumstances of this reckless provocation.

End quote. A few hours later, Kim Jong-il, the son of North Korean President Kim Il Sung, presented this to the conference of non-11. line nations, which was meeting at the time, and they passed a resolution calling for the removal of American forces from Korea. There was one problem with the North Korean version of the story. The entire incident was recorded with still and movie cameras by the Americans. The North Koreans probably assumed that this was it. They had won a PR coup and further wounded the pride of the Americans who had just been forced to pull out of Vietnam. That didn't happen. The American forces in South Korea immediately went to DefCon 3. If you remember back to my episode

on the DefCon levels, this is one of the only times in history that American forces have ever gone to DefCon 3. The issue went straight to the White House where President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger developed a plan to respond to the North Koreans. They wanted to show strength to the North Koreans, but they didn't want to escalate any further. They came up with Operation Paul Bunyan. October 21st, three days after the attack, a convoy of 23 American and South Korean vehicles entered the Joint Security Area. There were 16 engineers equipped with chainsaws and 60 security forces for protection. This time they weren't going to prune the tree, this time they were going to

cut it down. The North Koreans were not notified of this action, which is normally required by the agreement on the operation of the Joint Security Area. Artillery guns were trained on the bridge of no return, and explosives on the bridge were ready for detonation in case the North Koreans tried to cross again. A team of 64 South Korean Special Forces troops, trained in Taekwondo, were assembled at the foot of the bridge where they brought out sandbags and weapons. Twenty helicopters, including seven Cobra attack helicopters, were in the air behind the troops. There were also several B-52 bombers flown in from Guam that were circling above, which were capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Several squadrons of fighter air,

aircraft were in the air for their protection. Just to top it all off, the nuclear aircraft carrier of the USS Midway was stationed just off the west coast of South Korea, where the DMZ meets the sea. And the Americans also ordered another 12,000 troops to South Korea. Five minutes into the operation, the South Koreans officially notified the North Koreans that the units had entered the area, quote, in order to peacefully finish the work left unfinished. This overwhelming response was all to cut down a single tree. The North Koreans assembled troops on their side of the line, but they didn't do anything. The tree was removed in 42 minutes, and a 20-foot-high segment of the trunk was left standing

as a reminder to the North Koreans. Intelligence analysts, which were listening to North Korean radio transmissions, reported that they lost their minds at the show of force. They didn't think that something like this would happen over something that they thought was so minor. Later that day, North Korean president Kim Il-sung issued a statement of regret about the incident, which was something that North Korea had never done and has never done since. Thankfully, the incident didn't escalate any further. Nonetheless, it was the closest that the Korean Peninsula has been to war since the end of the conflict in 1953. Facilities at the DMZ have been named after Captain Boniface and Lieutenant Barrett. Cement barricades were later put in place to make the bridge of no return impassable

by vehicles. The axes used in the attack are today on display in the North Korean Peace Museum. As for the tree, the 20-foot-tall dead tree trunk that almost ignited a war is still standing. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. Today's review comes from listener Doubting Mark over at Podcast Republic. They write, For me, this podcast is a great refuge from the news and craziness of the world. Thanks for helping me get through the pandemic. Well, thank you very much, Mark. There are far too many people offering opinions today,

and not enough people who are sufficiently versed in history and science. This podcast is just a small attempt to give people a broader knowledge base so they can better develop their own opinions about things. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a question, you too can have it read on the show.