I couldn’t find any mention of ROKA atrocities against KPA during the Korean War but I vaguely remember watching a documentary years ago on the mutual cruelty both sides had visited on each other.
My post should have read KPA not KOA
Yes, there were instances of South Korean forces summarily executing North Korean POWs.
Reports of such incidents often don’t clearly distinguish between regular Korean People’s Army troops and guerrilla fighters, or between official Republic of Korea Army captors and other ROK forces.
Army-to-army war crimes were just a small fraction of the overall atrocities committed by both sides in the Korean War.
Thanks Chad. Can you name any instance is places where this happened ?
Specifically on prisoners of war, the book Korea: The Unknown War, by Jon Halliday and Bruce Cumings, mentions 50 Northern POWs being beheaded in August 1950 by ROK regional commander Kim Chong-won but does not say where. (Cumings has called Kim “the best candidate for South Korea’s leading war criminal.”)
The better-documented massacres by the ROK Army are of civilians – political prisoners, suspected leftists, and others – such as at Daejon.
Thank you Chad.
FWIW, My father was an MP in Korea. I have his old photos of a mass killing of civilians. No details beyond that.
Wish the posters would list and describe the full name of the initials like ROKA, KPA and ROK. I have no idea which side they are referring to.
What we call South Korea is the Republic of Korea, aka ROK. Their army would be the ROKA. Their foe would be the Korean People’s Army (KPA) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which we call North Korea.