page_title: Korean axe murder incident
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Korean axe murder incident / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a view from the steps of KPA#7 towards CP#3. (Photo January 1976) Also visible in the picture (left to right) are KPA#4 across the Bridge of Return, KPA#8 and KPA#5 (partially obscured behind tree). This picture was taken early in the morning, before the North Koreans opened this checkpoint up for the day.
context_page_description: The Korean axe murder incident was the killing of two United States Army officers, CPT Arthur Bonifas and 1LT Mark Barrett, by North Korean soldiers on August 18, 1976, in the Joint Security Area located in the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The U.S. Army officers had been part of a work party cutting down a poplar tree in the JSA.
  Three days later, American and South Korean forces launched Operation Paul Bunyan, an operation that cut down the tree with a show of force to intimidate North Korea into backing down, which it did. North Korea then accepted responsibility for the earlier killings.
  The incident is also known alternatively as the hatchet incident, the poplar tree incident, and the tree trimming incident.
context_section_description: In the Joint Security Area, near the Bridge of No Return, a 100-foot (30 m) poplar tree blocked the line of sight between a United Nations Command (UNC) checkpoint (CP No. 3) and an observation post (OP No. 5).
  Command Post No. 3, situated next to the Bridge of No Return, was the northernmost UNC checkpoint and only visible from OP No. 5 during the winter months. During the summer months, only the top of CP No. 3 was visible from one other UNC checkpoint (CP No. 2). Running across the middle of the bridge was the Military Demarcation Line between North Korean and South Korean territories.
  On one occasion before the incident, North Korean soldiers had held a group of U.S. troops at gunpoint, so Joint Security Force (JSF) company commander Captain Arthur Bonifas was sent to force the North Koreans to stand down and bring the Americans back to safety, which he did successfully. Bonifas would later be one of the two Americans killed in the axe murders.
  The North Koreans said that the tree had been planted by Kim Il-Sung.
caption: View from KPA No. 7 (near CP No. 2) towards CP No. 3
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