The
axe murder incident (
Korean: 판문점 도끼 살인 사건) was the killing of two
United States Army officers by North Korean soldiers on August 18, 1976, in the
Joint Security Area (JSA) located in the
Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which forms the
de facto border between
North and
South Korea. The killings, credited to Kim Jong-il's power consolidation,
[1] and the response three days later (
Operation Paul Bunyan) heightened tensions between North and South Korea as well as their respective allies, the
People's Republic of China and the
United States.
The incident is also known as the
hatchet incident and the
poplar tree incident because the object of the conflict was a
poplar tree standing in the JSA.
Initial trimming
On August 18, 1976, a group of five
Korean Service Corps (KSC) personnel escorted by a UNC security team consisting of the Joint Security Force (JSF) Company Commander (
Captain Arthur Bonifas), his South Korean (ROK) Army counterpart, Captain Kim, the platoon leader of the current platoon in the area (
1st Lt. Mark Barrett), and 11 enlisted personnel, both American and South Korean,
[2] went into the JSA to trim the tree as previously scheduled with the KPA delegation. The two captains did not wear sidearms, as members of the Joint Security Area were limited to only five armed officers and 30 armed enlisted personnel at a time. However, there were
mattocks in the back of the
2½ ton truck. The KSC workers had the axes they brought to prune the tree branches. The tree had been scheduled to be trimmed seven days earlier, but rain had forced the work to be rescheduled.
After trimming began, 15 to 16 KPA soldiers appeared, commanded by Senior Lt. Pak Chul, whom the UNC soldiers had previously nicknamed "Lt. Bulldog" due to a history of confrontations.
[3][4] Pak and his subordinates appeared to observe the trimming without concern for approximately 15 minutes, until he abruptly told the UNC to cease the activity stating the tree could not be trimmed "because Kim Il Sung personally planted it and nourished it and it’s growing under his supervision."
[5] Capt. Bonifas ordered the detail to continue, and turned his back on Lt. Pak Chul.
[6]
After being ignored by Capt. Bonifas, Pak sent a runner across the Bridge of No Return. Within minutes a North Korean guard truck crossed the bridge and approximately 20 more North Korean guards disembarked carrying crowbars and clubs. Pak again demanded that the tree trimming stop, and when Capt. Bonifas again turned his back on him, Pak removed his watch, carefully wrapped it in a handkerchief, placed it in his pocket, and then shouted "Kill them!" as he swung a karate chop to the back of Capt. Bonifas' neck.
[6][7] Using axes dropped by the tree-trimmers, the KPA forces attacked the two U.S. soldiers, Capt. Bonifas and Lt. Barrett, and wounded all but one of the UNC guards.
[3][8]
While Capt. Bonifas died instantly, Lt. Barrett jumped a low wall which led into a 15 ft. (4½ m) deep tree-filled depression. The depression was not visible from the road. The entire fight lasted for only about 20–30 seconds before the UNC Force managed to disperse the KPA guards and place Capt. Bonifas' body in their truck.
[7] However, there was no sign of Lt. Barrett and the two UNC guards at OP#5 could not see them.
They did, however, observe the KPA guards grab (by the heels) approximately five members of their own force and drag them back across the bridge. They also observed the KPA guards at KPA#8 (along the UNC emergency egress road) exhibiting strange behavior, in that one guard would take an axe and go down into the depression for a couple of minutes and then come back up and hand the axe to another guard who would repeat the process. This went on for approximately 90 minutes until the UNC guards at OP#5 were informed that Lt. Barrett was missing, at which time they informed their superiors about the KPA activity in the depression. A search and rescue squad was quickly dispatched and found Lt. Barrett had been attacked with the axe by the North Koreans.
[9]
A helicopter on a training mission was also sent to the location (its crew issued yellow armbands and .45 automatics) and used for a
medevac, but Barrett did not survive.
A corporal witnessed the attack from OP#5 and recorded the incident with both a camera and a movie camera.
[2][6]
