Memorandum on US Crimes against Human Rights

Central Committee of the Democratic Front

for the Reunification of Korea

North headquarters of the Nationwide

Special Committee for Probing the Truth behind GI’s massacres

Pyongyang, May 5, 2014.

The US remains as the sworn enemy of the Korean nation for all the miseries and suffering it inflicted on Korean people.

The crimes committed by the US against the Korean people for centuries through invasion and plunder are immeasurable.

The action taken by the US, posing as “human rights judge”, in raising one’s non-existent “human rights” issues is an insult against justice and conscience. The US action like a guilty party filing the suit first shows again the aggressive nature of the descendants of American race.

It is none other than the US that should be brought to the dock for the human rights violations it committed.

The Central Committee of the of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea and the North Headquarters of the Nationwide Special Committee for Probing the Truth behind the GIs’ Massacres release this memorandum to disclose the US crimes – the crimes against humanity and human rights – perpetrated by the US against the Korean nation.

1.           Severe Violations on the Sovereign Rights of the Korean Nation for Centuries through Brigandish Aggression.

Sovereignty is life to a nation and thereby, aggression comes as the most serious challenge to sovereignty and human rights.

The US continued to seriously infringe upon the sovereignty of Korea, fully engaged in its aggression on Korea for hundreds of years, starting with the intrusion of US warship “Sherman”.

Since the start of blood-shed aggression with the warship “Sherman” – it played the role of advance team and scout in the invasion of Korea – in 1886, the US consistently dispatched “Shenandoah” and other warships in 1868, 1868 and 1871 respectively for plunder and invasion of Korea.

Finding it hard to attain its aggressive purpose due to resistance of the Korean people, the US sided with Japan during the 1894-1895 Sino-Japanese War and 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War, openly supporting Japan's aggression of Korea. In 1905 the US concluded the "Katsura-Taft Treaty" which recognized Japan's occupation of Korea, using it as a shock brigade for invading Korea.

The Japanese colonial rule, which lasted for 40 years under the active patronage and full support of US, forced the Korean people to lead a life of colonial slavery - the life less well than the dog in a house of grief.

With the defeat of the Japanese imperialism, the US came to the fore in its invasion of Korea to severely infringe upon the national sovereignty.

Under the name of “emancipator”, US occupied south Korea in September 1945 and issued Decree No.1 of the MacArthur Command, declaring that the entire south Korean people should obey the command of the US occupation army. This was a start of brutal atrocities on the Korean nation by the US.

Revealing its true intention of aggression, saying “US commanding area should be expanded to the entire Korean region”, it finally launched military invasion of the DPRK on 25^th of June, 1950.

Despite all the frenzied efforts made by the U.S imperialism, deploying huge military forces and hardware and mobilizing 15 satellite allies, they had no way but to kneel down before the heroic Korean people and surrender.

Instead of learning lessons from its ignominious defeat in the Korean War, the US continued to occupy south Korea after the ceasefire and turned the region into the complete US colonial rule area and ruins of human rights.

Even the Western media made fun of democracy and human rights in south Korea, as an act of looking for rose in rubbish bin.

The US is responsible for turning south Korea into the largest nuclear arsenal on earth by deploying all forms of WMD including nuclear weapons. The amount of arsenal in south will be enough for the US to exterminate the whole Korean nation 100 times.

It is also responsible for bringing nuclear disasters and threats to the Korean people through joint military exercises and notorious nuclear war exercises including “Team Spirit”, “Key Resolve”, “Foal Eagle” and “Ulzi Freedom Guardian”.

The capturing of the US armed spy warship “Pueblo” and shooting down of “EC-121” reconnaissance plane in 1960s, the Panmunjom incident in 1970s as well as the “9-day Operation Plan” and “5-day Operation Plan” reveals how much the US ran amuck to invade the DPRK and occupy the entire Korean Peninsula with the purpose of forcing the Korean people into the colonial slavery life. “Operation Plan 5027” and “Operation Plan 5029” together with “Joint Plan for Coping with the Provocation of a Local War”, “Custom-tailored Deterrence Policy” add to the fact.

Any crime against humanity and human rights won’t be more serious than the US that plans to exterminate the whole Korean nation and make them slavery through its military invasion and war.

2.                 Inhumane Atrocity against the Korean Nation.

The brutal atrocities the US committed against the Korean people since its invasion are unprecedented in all ages and centuries. 

1)      The US Invasion of Korea paved with Massacre

The US imperialism brutally massacred Korean people from 19^th century while they were conducting mine development and missionary work; in 19^th century, the U.S forced Korean government to sign “Korea – US Treaty” to launch its invasion of Korea in full scale.

The US felons in Korea, being disguised themselves with different identities as merchant, missionary, doctor and teacher, regarded the lives of Korean people far less important than the flies.

The US imperialists usurped rights for developing mines in Kapsan, Suan and Unsan, railway concession between Seoul and Inchon and management of trams, telephones and water-supply systems and committed brutal atrocities wherever they went, exploiting from people.  

A miner, in a mine underdevelopment, raised his hand for help from the collapsed tunnel but his arm was chopped mercilessly with an axe, with the word “once you are buried, there is no way but to die.” Young man, twined in a machine, was left to die brutally by his owner, saying “if we stop the machine, we will lose gold which is more expensive than hundreds of Korean workers”. A boy was bitten to death brutally by a hound unleashed deliberately by an American. These are some of the atrocities the US imperialist murderers committed in Korea.

Such a brutal atrocity as the word “thief” being marked with hydrochloric acid on the forehead of a small girl by an American missionary, because she picked an apple in his orchard still remains in the memory of the Korean people today together with their resentment. It is impossible to count all the people who were murdered in such ways.

The US is accomplice of the brutal atrocities committed by the Japanese imperialism against the Korean people.

Concerning with the Japanese brutal repression of the participants in the March 1 Popular Uprising in 1919, the US State Department openly gave support to the Japanese government, stating that “The Korean issue is the internal issue of Japan and the situation is exactly same as the one in the Philippines. The US serious doubts about the credibility of the news related with the attitude of the Japanese government. The information we received tells us that the Japanese government did not take such a brutal and firm measure against the uprising."

The US stands behind all the crimes against humanity committed by Japan during its colonial rule such as brutal killing of Korean people, forcing them to labour and lead comfort-women lives. 

2)      The U.S Atrocities of Indiscriminate Massacre in south Korea after Korean Liberation on August 15

After their illegitimate occupation of south Korea, the US committed atrocities of indiscriminately slaughtering patriots and people who were against colonial rule in south Korea.

In October 1946, the October People’s Resistance was met with the brutal suppression of the puppet armed forces incited by the US. In the end, 25,000 people were killed and thousands of people were missing with tens of thousands of people wounded; the October People’s Resistance was the uprising by the south Korean people in various areas including Taegu, demanding for the democratic rights and abolition of the military administration.

The US mobilized puppet military gangsters to brutally massacre 70,000 people in Jeju island – 25% of its total population at the time – by shooting, hanging and burying them alive when there was April 3 Uprising in the island against the US administration in 1948. During this oppression, the US said, “What we need is Jeju Island, not its residents.”, “Burn the whole island with fuel and burn them all.”

On the single day of May 10, 1948, 416 people were killed and 858 people were wounded for the reason that they were opposing the US-supported “Separate Election”.

During its repression operation against the Ryosu Mutiny in October 1948, 2,400 people were killed and 4,500 were wounded in Ryosu and Sunchon in South Jonra Province, according to the report.

The US forces killed 40,000 people and wounded hundreds of thousands of people during its punitive operation in 5 areas including Mt. Jiri, Mt. Taebaek and Mt. Otae from December 1949 to January 1950.

South Korea was trampled down by the US military boots, becoming an enormous abattoir.

Since the US occupation of south Korea, 10,000 patriotic people were killed until July 1949. It was reported that 109,000 innocent people were killed and 118,600 were sent to prison in a just few months from July 1949 until spring 1950, the period when the US was preparing the aggression to the north while stepping up the fascist campaign. The number of deaths and the wounded during this period exceeds the number of deaths in the previous four years.

Tainted with decadent racism and immorality as well as depravity, the US brutes in south Korea regarded killing and rape as their pleasure.

In 1947, 24 Yankees gang raped 3 Korean women on the train to Honam although they were holding babies on their back. At the end, those women were beaten unconscious. This incident is well-known to the world as the “GI’s Gang-rape of the Korean Women”.

According to the official statistics of south Korean authorities, all forms of crimes including murder, robbery and rape committed by the US aggression forces reach more than 23,000 cases. Thereby, hundreds of thousands of south Koreans suffered from huge loss of life in this peaceful time, not a war time.

3)      Massacres in the period of the Korean War.

During the Korean War, the US aggressors massacred our people in the most brutal and cruel manner beyond all the imagination of human beings.

Official records shows that the US imperialists killed 1.23 million in north and 1.24 million in south during the wartime period.

Such atrocities were committed in increased number during the KPA's temporary strategic retreat.

The well known Sinchon massacre is the typical example.

US imperialists killed around 35,380 patriots and innocent civilians- one fourth of county’s population at the time - in 50 days of occupation of Sinchon County in October 1950. Among those victims, 16,200 were children, aged people and women.

The US killed 900 people in an air-raid shelter of the county party committee, setting fire on them with petrol. The brutes separated children from their mothers in order to make them irritate, saying “children are too happy with their mothers.” They gave petrol to the thirsty children, instead of water and threw bundles of fire and grenades to kill 910 people in total including 400 mothers and 102 children.

The GIs killed a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea by pulling out his eyes, cutting off his heart and quartering his body simply because he was a Party member; they killed an active farmer by pushing a nail into head and sawing off his body; killed a man by dragging him with his nose pierced through by wire and finally chopping him with a pick simply because he refused to obey them.

After arresting the core members of our Women’s organization, the GIs committed atrocity about which even animals might feel blushed; they made her naked and dragged in street calling her “the red woman”, “chairman of Women’s League”, “Wife of Korean People’s Army”, brutally tortured and raped her in group, cut off her breast and womb. Not satisfied with this, they buried massive people alive to death and drowned to death into a water reservoir.

The GIs who intruded into Eunryul Mine in October 1950 killed over 2,000 miners and their families in such appalling methods as throwing them who had been tied with wire pierced through their abdomen into a shaft, ripping open the abdomen of a pregnant woman saying they want to see the offspring of the red, cutting over 300 patriots with straw chopper, etc.

During the period of one month and more, the aggressive U.S. troops mercilessly committed mass-killing of innocent people including;

over 15,000 people in Pyongyang

19,072 people in Anak

Over 13,000 people in Unryul

Over 5,000 people in Haeju

5,998 people in Pyoksong

5,545 people in Songhwa

5,131 people in Eunchon

3,429 people in Taetan

Over 950 people in Sariwon

Over 5,000 people in Anju

3,040 people in Bongchon

2,450 people in Yonan

Over 1,400 people in Jaeryong

1,199 people in Jangyon

802 people in Rakyon

Over 5,290 people in Pyongsan

1,385 people in Tosan

1,293 people in Bongsan

Over 1,000 people in Songrim

1,561 people in Kangso

1,511 people in Nampo

1,342 people in Kaechon

Over 1,200 people in Sunchon

Over 1,400 people in Pakchon

Over 800 people in Jongju

Over 1,560 people in Cholwon

Over 630 people in Wonsan

648 people in Hamju

532 people in Tanchon

Over 1,400 people in Sonchon

The U.S. brutes killed innocent people in such ways as dragging to death with ear pierced, cutting off lips and tongue, quartering and dismembering human body, driving a nail into head, cutting off the body with saw, burning, crushing with tank, etc.

The Investigation Team of the International Federation of Democratic Women investigated the atrocities committed by the U.S. in 1951 in the northern part of Korea and concluded that “the mass-killing and torture perpetrated by the U.S. in the temporally occupied areas are more heinous than that committed by the Hitler Nazis in their temporarily occupied Europe.”

Innocent people in south Korea were also victims of massacre by the US imperialists.

The number of innocent patriots and civilians who were brutally killed by the US imperialist brutes on their way of fleeing back are as follows;

5,000 in Inchon

1,146 in Suwon

600 in Pyongtaek

500 in Ansong

2,000 in Puyo

158 in Jochiwon

8,644 in Taejon

2,000 in Chongju

4,000 in Jonju

400 in Kunsan

600 in Kongju

400 in Anyang

2,060 in Chongju

The well-known Rogeun-ri massacre is another live example of the brutality of the US imperialists.

In July 1950, a group of murderers in the 7^th Regiment of the 1^st Armored Division of the US Army forced civilians to gather on the railway bridge near Rogeun ri of the Yongdong County in North Chungchong Province and called in planes by radio communication to bomb and strafe over them. The murderers even killed the people who hid themselves under the bridge with their machine guns.

In several counties including Kechang, Hamyang and Sanchong in South Kyongsang Province, the US imperialists forced thousands of innocent people to gather in a place and massacred them entirely including suckling babies and aged people in their 70s. They attempted to conceal their crimes by burning the bodies, using petrol.

In Seoul, patriots and people numbering about 147,000 were murdered from September 1950 to February 1951; the US imperialists were fleeing back in this period.

The US imperialist aggression forces sexually abused Korean women to satisfy their desires and killed them recklessly in the vortex of the Korean War.

A “Special Order” was given by MacArthur, then Commander of “UN Command” in September 1950 to the US aggression forces landing in Inchon. He ordered “Capture Seoul. You will have girls and women there. The City will be in your hands for 3 days and girls and women there will be all yours.” By this “order”, many women were fallen to victims of rape and massacre.

After jumping into a house in Seoul, the GIs threw the 2-week-old baby to the ground and raped his mom. An atrocity of raping a girl in front of her mother was committed by the US soldiers.

In fact, all those US atrocities committed during the period of the Korean War are unprecedented in history in terms brutality and cruelty.

4)      The Horrible Atrocities committed in south Korea from the Postwar Period until Today.

After the end of the Korean War, the US, posing as a master in south Korea, continued to commit brutal atrocities against many innocent people.

A girl was shot dead under the name of “pheasant” while she was picking up herbs and a 3 year-old child had the same destiny because he was believed to be “thief of petrol”. These incidents were named as “Shooting Incident of a Girl in Kunsan” and “Killing Incident of a Child in Inchon Petroleum Pipeline” in 1957. The 1958 incident named “Incident of a Pupyong Girl in a Box of Helicopter” exposes how the orphan, shoeshine boy, was accused as a thief and mangled, how his toenails and hairs were pulled by a pair of pliers and, at the end, was dumped in a box from the helicopter, all his body covered with tar. In 1959, a woman, forcibly taken to a US military base, was raped by a group of soldiers and beaten with whip. She was then forced out to the street with her whole body being painted. This atrocity was recorded as the “Incident of a Painted Woman of Euijongbu”. The “Incident of Paju Woodchopper in 1962” whereby a farmer was shot dead as “roe deer” and the “Shooting Incident in 1981” whereby several civilians were killed in the name of testing “M-16” rifles are just few examples of the US atrocities committed in south Korea.

The Yun Gum Hui Case is about the satanic atrocity committed by a GI who raped and killed afore-said woman at Dongduchon around the US military base in 1992 by striking her head with a bottle and pushing a bottle in her womb and an umbrella in her anus. The case of Sin Hyo Sun and Sim Mi Son is about two young girls who were gruesomely killed beneath the pedrail of a US armored vehicle in 2002. These cases represent part of the crimes against humanity that can be committed only by the Yankees who are raised and imbued with immorality and hatred of human.

The GIs, from the very beginning, have regarded the south Korean people as animals like ducks or pheasants or wild rats instead of human being and considered them as no more than plaything for satisfying their perverted sexual desire.

In order to satisfy their sexual desire, the barbarian GIs raped indiscriminately any woman whether she is aged over 60 or minor, aged 6 or 8 and parturient pregnant.

A GI aged 23, raped a grandmother three times in alleys and parking areas and raped a teenage girl for over 4 hours in various perverted and thrilling methods. This incident is only a part of appalling atrocities committed by the brutal GIs upon south Korean women, which are too terrible to speak about in one’s tongue.

Last year only has recorded a number of brutalities committed by the aggressive GIs in series including the incident of GIs’ group-raping of a women aged 20 in metro, the incident of a GI shooting randomly at pedestrians in central Seoul and escaping in a vehicle after crashing with a police, the incident of GIs who caused a traffic accident while driving in drunk and beat a victim chasing after them. Those atrocities arouse fury of the south Korean population.

Despite of the shuddering atrocities they committed, the brutal GIs are exempt from legal punishment because of the inequitable “US-south Korea Administrative Agreement” and repeatedly commit such atrocities, enjoying extraterritorial privileges.

The US cruelly oppressed and massacred the south Korean people in all walks of life who were engaged in the struggle for anti-US independence and anti-fascism democratization.

During the Kwangju Popular Uprising of May 18 in 1980, the US instigated the south Korean puppet paratroopers to slaughter the participants of uprising by mobilizing guns and hand-grenades, tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters. The then suppressive paratroopers committed such atrocities as beating middle-school students to death with iron hammers, ripping open the abdomen of a pregnant woman and picking out the fetus with a sword, cutting off breasts of female students, etc. and turned the entire city into the “bath of blood”, shocking the world in nightmare.

The US massacre of the Korean nation is in deed unprecedented in history and demonstrates to the whole world the murderous identity, brutality and barbarity of the US.

3.       Despicable Violation and Obliteration of the Right to Existence of the Korean Nation

The US has despicably violated and obliterated even the right to existence of the Korean nation by trampling down their national sovereignty, massacring them in cold blood, destroying their living cradles and plundering their assets without discrimination.

During the Korean War, the brutal US turned the entire Korean territory into ashes with indiscriminate bombings, saying that “We will erase 78 north Korean cities from the world map” and “We’ll make nothing left in north Korea even if broomed.”

In 1952 only, the US bombarded over 200 thousands of bombs on the entire areas of northern part of Korea, used more than 1.5 Million of ammunitions and 400 thousands for rockets and dropped more than 15 million napalm bombs. In Pyongyang area only, the US dropped 52,380 bombs of various types including the mine shell, incendiary bomb and microbe bomb, making a world record of dropping 1,000 bombs per one square kilometer.

During the three-year long Korean War, the US dropped more than 428,000 bombs on Pyongyang city in total of 1,400 times and therefore the city turned into ashes with no single building left by the time of the end of the War.

The US air force conducted air raid over the airspace of the northern part of Korea for 800,000 times while the US Marine Corps and Navy for 250,000 times and dropped nearly 600,000 tons of bombs and napalm bombs, 3.7 times higher in number than the bombs dropped on the Japanese territory during the Pacific War.

The US destroyed cities, villages and industrial establishments without discretion.

Due to the brutality of the US during the Korean War, 50,0941 factories and industrial buildings, 28,632 schools, 579 scientific research institutions, 8,163 press media and cultural installations and 2,077,226 dwelling houses were severely destroyed while 563,755 ha. of farm lands damaged and 155,500 ha. of padded fields reduced.

After the War, nothing but ash was left for the Korean people and that is why the US declared that Korea will never rise up again even after 100 years.

Degradation of environment has reached a dangerous level because of the decades-long occupation of south Korea by the US aggressive forces.

Random dumping of hazardous materials including used fuel, chemicals and heavy metal in rivers of Han, Rimjin, Kumho, etc., which are all situated in the vicinity of the US military bases, has caused contamination of river unsuitable for drinking while the West Sea of Korea has also been severely contaminated making seafood breeding and fishery impossible.

The US massively sprinkled defoliants, poison fatal to human body, in the area of DMZ raising the so-called “threat of southward aggression” and buried them without any consideration in various areas of US military bases and around their vicinity, thus turning those places “permanently dead land”.

The US military base in Chilgok of north Kyongsang Province, for example, is known to have defoliant of over 50 tons which can bereave 1.5 million people of their lives buried randomly and threatening the lives and health of millions of people who use Rakdong river for drinking water.

It has been reported that by initial estimation enormous amount of money requires to simply purify the contaminated environment of the US military bases in south Korea.

Therefore, the news media of south Korea lament that “The history of the US troops in south Korea is the history of crimes” and “In fact the entire territory has turned to a dumping place of pollutants for the US military forces.

The soil degradation and devastation of land by the US is barbaric act posing a grave threat to the right of life of our nation.

4.       Brutality against Humanity entailing Tragic National Division of Korea

The imposition of the tragic division for nearly 70 years upon our nation, living in harmony on the same territory with time-honored history of 5,000 years, and persistent hindrance to the Korean reunification constitutes yet another large crime against humanity and human right crime committed by the US against the Korean nation.

As the World War II was coming close to an end in August, 1945, the US occupied south Korea illegally in August after drawing a demarcation line, with the evil-minded intention of occupying the south, the half of the Korean Peninsula. In 1948, the US sought for the perpetual national division in Korea by holding the “Separate Election of May 10” aimed at forming the puppet regime led by Ri Seung Man

Although the US was encountered with severe defeat in its aggressive war against DPRK, it never withdrew its aggressive intention on the DPRK and, under the name of UN, continued to hinder the political meetings, held for peaceful solution on the issues of Korean Peninsula, according the “Armistice Agreement”. The US deliberately broke off the conference of foreign ministers held in Geneva in 1954 – the purpose of the conference was to handle the issues of the Korean Peninsula through negotiations. 

“We lost hundreds of thousands of lives in this Korean War. We can not just leave all the things down and leave.” This is what the US stated publicly at that time. It scraped the provisions of the “Armistice Agreement”, which stipulate about the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the Korean Peninsula, to direct its efforts on the permanent US military occupation in the region.

In 1960s, the US began to instigate south Korean puppet groups to oppress the national reunification movements and bar the trend towards reunification by executing and suppressing number of patriots with various plots.

The release of the July 4 Joint Statement – three principles for the national reunification – and the soaring aspiration of the reunification in 1970s made the US to be frightened and cling to policy of “two Koreas”, consisting of “Simultaneous Admission to UN” and “Cross-Recognition”. When the “Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-Aggression and Cooperation” was adopted as an outcome of the high-level talks between north and south Korea in 1990s, the US ignored the agreement and responded by frenzied nuclear clamour against the DPRK.

The US openly insulted the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration and October 4 Inter-Korean Declaration, making insults and threats on those declarations as the “unpleasant memory” to the two former south Korean “Presidents” and “a serious situation never to neglect”, although those historical declarations were adopted through two north-south summit meetings in 2000s. As soon as the “President” ended his term and Lee Myong Bak took office, the US instigated this pro-US henchman to push those “Presidents” to death.

The tragic death of Kim Dae Jung and Ro Mu Hyon, former “Presidents” of south Korea, is de facto the result of political terrorism plotted by the manipulation of the US, who is reluctant to accept the reunification of Korea, thus presenting a great challenge and retrogression to the aspiration of the Korean nation for reunification.

Not content with this, the US instigated the pro-US henchmen to trample down and impede the implementation of all inter-Korean Declarations and thus reversed the inter-Korean relations to confrontation.

When the inter-Korean relations showed sign of improving with the high-level contact between the north and south, thanks to our leading and sincere efforts this year, the US conducted maniac war exercises in various type including the “Key Resolve” and “Foal Eagle” by mobilizing aggressive forces on a large scale. By doing so, the US cast chill on the environment for improving inter-Korean relations and drove the situation to the extreme and brink of war, thereby closing another opportunity for the reunion of separated families.

In such ways as mentioned above, the US not only disturbs the reunification of Korea viciously but also checks the independent development and the road toward peaceful prosperity of our nation.

The total damage, both in terms of physical and material, inflicted upon our nation due to the invasive maneuvers of and atrocity against humanity committed by the US amounts to over 114 trillion US$.

The US, who forcibly imposed the separation of the Korean nation for generation after generation, estranged them from each other and is poised to inflict nuclear calamity upon them, is in true sense the worst human rights criminal who deserves to be referred to international tribunal.

Indeed, it is endless to mention about the crimes against humanity and human rights, committed by US against the Korean nation for centuries.

No brutal country such as the US exists in the world.

Nevertheless, the US just like a thief crying “Stop thief!” often clamors about the “human rights” situation of others. This shows clearly how brazen faced burglar and heinous provocateur the US is.

There can be no statutory limitation applicable to the crimes against humanity unprecedented in history, which the US committed against the Korean people.

Our nation will surely settle account with the US, the sworn enemy.

It’s time for the US to behave rationally and realize why our nation condemns the US as sworn enemy with great fury and why our army prepares for the final nuclear confrontation with the US, holding the slogan of “Destroy the US imperialist aggressors, sworn enemy of the Korean people!”