Subsequently, during their brief occupation of the south, the North Koreans executed many suspected rightists. Those killings, once discovered, were widely publicized in the Western press. Information about the South Korean government's mass executions was suppressed for decades under this country's former military rulers. Relevant South Korean records were destroyed, researchers believe. But victims' families recently began speaking out, and human bones have been unearthed at mass burial sites.
Witnesses describe brutal mass shootings.
A retired South Korean admiral told the AP that 200 people, never put on trial, were taken offshore to be shot and dumped into the sea. Villagers in the Dokchon area remembered truckloads of civilians, trussed together, brought to the hills here and executed by South Korean military police. The AP learned it was a U.S. Army account of those Dokchon killings that reached MacArthur. The U.S. ambassador, John Muccio, later reported back that he urged President Syngman Rhee and Defense Minister Shin Sung-mo to end summary executions deemed illegal and inhumane. 1st Class Frank Pearce, said in a written report to his company commander on the shootings here.