# Were there any instances of war crimes committed by the ROKA against the KPA during the Korean War? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 5, 2023, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-instances-of-war-crimes-committed-by-the-roka-against-the-kpa-during-the-korean-war/986620 "2023-07-05T04:21:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-instances-of-war-crimes-committed-by-the-roka-against-the-kpa-during-the-korean-war/986620/1 "2023-07-05T04:21:47Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-instances-of-war-crimes-committed-by-the-roka-against-the-kpa-during-the-korean-war/986620/2 "2023-07-05T04:22:41Z")
My post should have read KPA not KOA ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-instances-of-war-crimes-committed-by-the-roka-against-the-kpa-during-the-korean-war/986620/3 "2023-07-05T06:21:54Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-instances-of-war-crimes-committed-by-the-roka-against-the-kpa-during-the-korean-war/986620/4 "2023-07-05T07:22:39Z")
Thanks Chad. Can you name any instance is places where this happened ? ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-instances-of-war-crimes-committed-by-the-roka-against-the-kpa-during-the-korean-war/986620/5 "2023-07-05T09:11:44Z")
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. > **[Bodo League massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodo_League_massacre)** > > The Bodo League massacre (Korean: 보도연맹 학살; Hanja: 保導聯盟虐殺) was a massacre and a war crime against communists and alleged communist-sympathizers (many of whom were civilians who had no connection to communism or communists) that occurred in the summer of 1950 during the Korean War. Estimates of the death toll vary. Historians and experts on the Korean War estimate that the full total ranges from at least 60,000–110,000 (Kim Dong-choon, who stated that this was likely a very conservative estimate)... ---
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-instances-of-war-crimes-committed-by-the-roka-against-the-kpa-during-the-korean-war/986620/6 "2023-07-05T10:45:20Z")
Thank you Chad. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-instances-of-war-crimes-committed-by-the-roka-against-the-kpa-during-the-korean-war/986620/7 "2023-07-06T02:24:04Z")
FWIW, My father was an MP in Korea. I have his old photos of a mass killing of civilians. No details beyond that. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-instances-of-war-crimes-committed-by-the-roka-against-the-kpa-during-the-korean-war/986620/8 "2023-07-06T02:48:30Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![WellHelloThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9dc877/32.png) [@WellHelloThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WellHelloThere)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-instances-of-war-crimes-committed-by-the-roka-against-the-kpa-during-the-korean-war/986620/9 "2023-07-06T04:15:56Z")
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.