October 23, 1950 archives

War news: Death Cave at Wonsan

Han Jun Myung, 44, is a minister of the Jesus Church of Korea in Wonsan. A few days after the war began, he suggested in a sermon that the problem of unifying Korea should be turned over to the U.N. Three days later Han was thrown into a Wonsan prison along with 500 other political suspects.

Early one morning last week, as the Communists were being driven out of Wonsan by South Korean troops, Han Jun Myung and about 300 other prisoners were called out of their cells, marched up a nearby hill and pushed into a large cave. As soon as the prisoners were all in the cave, the Communists began firing. Bullets killed the men on the right & left of Han, tore through his clothing, but did not touch him. The Communists blasted the entrance to the cave, but failed to close it entirely. For two days Han remained in the cave, then crawled out to meet South Korean liberators.

Han's story was one among thousands collected last week by U.N. observers investigating Communist atrocities in Korea. To back up the stories, there were bullet-riddled bodies: in Wonsan, 500.