Re: Germ war thing again

[Ed Evanhoe <ede@oio.net>]

Hi YS,

Short answer is, "No. The U.S. did not use BW during the Korean
War."  This has been very well researched by a number of neutral
organizations.  Basically it was a near-starvation diet that weakened
immune systems and left the people susceptible typhus, typhoid cholera
and all the other diseases and a very high death rate. The claim the U.S.
was using BW was first aimed at the local North Korean population to
explain away to them the number of people dying of various diseases.
NK quickly saw the propaganda value and invited world media in to view
various staged events (the famous picture of the leaflet bomb covered in
flies is an example.)

As a matter of information, we sent a special team of doctors into North
Korea as part of a raiding mission.  The doctors conducted examinations
of local residents, including drawing blood and taking various smears, while
the raiding team kept NK troops away.  These were examined by a team
of doctors from the U.N. health organization.   Every disease found in these
specimens was the same found in a random sample of healthy South Koreans,
the difference being the South Koreans were in much better health and had
stronger immune systems because of better diet and living conditions.

Ed

At 09:21 AM 3/25/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi, list members:
>
>North Korea is pushing the "US germ warfare in Korea" again
>(http://www.kimsoft.com/2000/dprk04.htm).
>
>After 50 years, we ought to settle this issue one way or the other:  Did the
>US use BC weapons in Korea or not?
>
>
>ysk
>
>------
>III. Mass Killing by Germ and Chemical Weapons:
>
>The international treaties including the "Geneva Protocol of June 17 1925
>For the Prohibition of the Use in War of the Asphyxiating, Poisonous or
>Other Gas and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare" strictly prohibit the
>use of mass destruction weapons, including poison gas, germ weapons and
>toxic chemical weapons, in a war and stipulate that any violator shall be
>punishable as a war criminal.
>
>The U.S. aggressors, however, did not hesitate to massively use germ and
>chemical weapons in the Korean War in flagrant violation of human morality
>and international laws.
>
>A. Mass Killings by Germ Weapons
>
>After the U.S. repeated setbacks on the whole front in face of the heroic
>battle of the Korean People's Army, U.S. President Truman ordered them to
>use any type of weapon in Korea, including A-bomb. Acting upon this order,
>the U.S. aggressors buckled down to a germ warfare.
>While fleeing from their temporarily occupied areas of the northern half of
>Korea they spread smallpox and other contagious germs there. As a result,
>smallpox rapidly spread 7-8 days later in Pyongyang, South Phyongan
>Province, Kangwon Province and Hwanghae Province, which were liberated from
>the U.S. temporary occupation from mid-December, 1950 to January 1951. In
>April 1951 the number of smallpox cases reached as many as 3,500 and 10
>percent of them died.
>
>Their germ warfare engulfed the whole of the northern half of Korea in 1952.
>On Jan. 28, 1952 U.S. planes massively dropped flies, flees, bedbugs and
>other poisonous insects carrying contagious viruses over Ichon area and
>again spread lots of flies and fleas the next day. Flies, mosquitoes,
>spiders and fleas were dropped over Pyongyang and its adjacent areas on Feb.
>15, 16 and 17.
>
>Insects carrying germs were massively dropped over Sohung County, Hwanghae
>Province, Pakchon County, North Phyongan Province, Junghwa County, South
>Phyongan Province, Kowon County, South Hamgyong Province, and other areas on
>March 1 and 4. In the period from January to March 1952 when they began an
>all-out germ war the U.S. aggressors dropped various germ bombs about 804
>times over 169 places in alpine, coastal and mountainous areas of the north.
>One fourth of the planes involved in air raids on the northern half of Korea
>participated in the germ war. Some days their number reached 480 planes.
>
>The US brutally killed POWs of the KPA by using them as guinea pigs for germ
>weapon experiment. A warship commanded by Brigadier General James, the then
>"chief for health and welfare" of the "UN Forces General Command," was
>secretly at anchor close to the shore of Koje Island to put POWs of the KPA
>to a germ weapon test in March 1951.
>
>The UP news said on May 18, 1951 that 36 germ experts made at least 3,000
>tests using north Korean POWs as guinea pigs in the laboratory aboard a ship
>every day. 1,400 of those imprisoned on Koje Island were infected with a
>serious disease and 80 percent of the rest contracted unknown illness, the
>news added.
>
>B. Mass Killing by Chemical Weapon
>
>It was one of the most serious crimes of the U.S. aggressors during the
>Korean War that they used a chemical weapon of mass destruction. They
>heavily bombed Nampho City four times and dropped poison-gas bombs over it,
>killing 1,379 innocent civilians on May 6, 1951. They dropped lachrymatory
>and toxic poison-gas bombs over several areas of Wonsan and South Hwanghae
>Province, poisoning scores of civilians and killing others on July 6 and
>September 1, 1952.
>They used chemical weapon not only against cities but a small number of
>farmhouses. They dropped five toxic poison-gas bombs over scores of
>farmhouses in Haksong-ri, Munchon County, Kangwon Province on January 9,
>1952,killing or poisoning innocent civilians. They made 33 poison-gas bomb
>attacks against various areas of the northern half of Korea from Feb. 27,
>1952 to April 9. They used at least 15 million Spa napalm -shells, a mass
>destruction weapon.
>
>Their planes dropped even food, leaflets and fake money containing poisonous
>substance. 100 won note fake money and leaflets were massively spread over
>areas of Kanri, South Phyongan Province, and Yonan, South Hwanghae province
>at night in September 1952 to poison people, and poison-treated shell-fish
>was dropped over Taedong County, South Phyongan Province, on May 18, 1952.
>
>They also unhesitatingly killed POWs of the KPA by using them as guinea pigs
>for a poisonous substance test. The chief of the concentration camp on Koje
>Island took 120 POWs of the KPA belonging to its Fourth Battalion on two
>separate special trucks where they were detained for four hours under the
>pretext that they were mobilized for some work on July 7, 1952. They
>conducted a gas weapon test on them, making it impossible for all of them to
>open their eyes for two months or rendering them crippled.
>
>On August 13, 1952, the U.S. aggressors herded many POWs of the KPA into a
>small wire entanglement in the second camp on Ryongcho Island and ordered
>two platoons to explode at least 1,000 gas shells there, inflicting serious
>burn upon at least 350 POWs, leaving 44 POWs unconscious and killing four
>others. On June 10, 1952, 27 tanks and 12 artillery pieces of the U.S.
>aggressors fired chemical shells at POWs of the KPA in the 76th camp on Koje
>Island, massacring 227 of them.
>
>IV. Massacre of POWs
>
>The 1949 Geneva Convention on the treatment of POWs and other international
>laws call for a humanitarian treatment and protection of POWs under
>detention and ban acts of killing them or endangering their health. And they
>consider such acts as grave crimes and call for legal actions against them.
>
>The U.S. aggressors, however, massacred POWs of our side as they pleased
>during the Korean War in gross violation of the publicly recognized
>international laws and war law and regulations. They killed the POWs of our
>side by conducting various type weapon tests on them.
>
>They took the POWs who served in KPA artillery units out of the POWs in the
>seventh camp under the 100th POW camp in Koje-ri, Pusan on November 20, 1950
>to a point six kilometers away from southeast of the camp. The tanks, which
>had been deployed 200 meters from it, machine-gunned them when they were
>forced to sit or lie down on the ground, killing all of them.
>
>In flagrant violation of the publicly international recognized law they
>staged such farces as "voluntary repatriation," "private interview and
>screening" and "petition for release" in a bid to detain POWs of the KPA by
>force. They mercilessly killed everyone who refused to comply with their
>demands.
>
>As POWs of our side rejected "private interview and screening" at the 76th
>camp on June 10, 1952, they mobilized more than 4,000 soldiers, 22 tanks, 20
>artillery pieces, 40 heavy machine-guns and light machine-guns in
>discriminate firing, poison-gas spraying and hand-grenade throwing for four
>hours, killing 276 POWs and wounding many others.
>
>On May 27, 1952 at least 800 POWs were killed by flamethrowers at the 77th
>camp on Koje Island for rejecting "voluntary repatriation" and insisting on
>their repatriation to the northern half of Korea.
>
>Some 1,000 U.S. soldiers encircled the 62nd POW camp on Koje Island on
>February 18, 1952 and fired 25 heavy machine guns and 63 light machine-guns
>killing 102 POWs of our side and wounding 260 others, for the mere reason
>that they refused to sign the application for "civil detainee."
>
>These massacres were committed in all the POW camps and mass killings took
>place in more than 20 camps from March to April 1952.
>
>According to a survey made at that time, GIs killed at least 33, 600 POWs of
>the KPA and tens of thousands of POWs were wounded or crippled. Indeed, the
>massacres committed by the U.S. aggressors during the Korean War were
>hideous crimes against humanity as they were a wanton violation of the
>publicly recognized international law and war law and regulations.
>

Ed Evanhoe, PO Box 916, Antlers, OK, 74523
Member: American Society of Journalists and Authors
Author: DARKMOON: Eighth Army Special Operations in the Korean War
Life Member:  Special Forces & Special Operations Associations
Co-list Owner:  KOREAN-WAR-L (University of Kansas Listproc)
Web site:  http://www.korean-war.com
PGP Public Key Available on Request