保导联盟事件

过程

1949年，韩国政府据1948年12月实施的《国家保安法》成立“国民保导联盟”，对共产主义同情者实施再教育，旨在“通过改变意识形态来保护和引导受极左主义影响的人们”。当时，官僚为求达成登记人数目标，以各种利益吸引，例如米、面粉等粮食或日用品。加之因战争带来的饥饿，许多平民被怂恿或胁迫登记为“保导联盟”成员。当中很多人不是共产主义同情者，甚至根本不知道什么是“共产主义”、“共产党”。除此之外被强制登记为保导联盟的成员当中还有部分参与“南北连席会议”的中间派或右翼党如韩国独立党的成员，以及坚持美军撤出的人士。成立不到半年，“国民保导联盟”已有30万名成员。

1950年朝鲜战争爆发后，韩国总统李承晚于6月27日下令逮捕并处决保导联盟成员。第一场屠杀于一天后的6月28日于江原道横城郡开始。撤退的韩国军队和反共组织在没有任何审判或判决的情况下处决了所谓的共产党囚犯以及大量保导联盟成员。其中许多死者为与共产党关系甚浅、甚至不相干的人士。

时任美国驻韩大使约翰·J·穆奇奥曾经要求李承晚总统和国防部长申性模停止未经审讯的处决；英国与澳大利亚方面皆有见证报导纪录，并曾透过外交管道试图阻止后续暴行。

被害人数

屠杀人数言人人殊，由于年代久远、材料不足，没有统一的说法。较通行的说法有两个，一是韩国首尔大学教授金东椿估计，有六万至十一万人死亡；最高是韩国延世大学东亚研究中心主任朴明林估计，有二十万人死亡。

The Bodo League massacre (Korean: 보도연맹 학살; Hanja: 保導聯盟虐殺) was the mass killing of alleged communists and communist sympathizers by South Korean forces in the summer of 1950, during the Korean War. Many victims were civilians who had no connection to communism or communists. Estimates of the death toll vary, with historians estimating that between 60,000 and 200,000 people were killed.

South Korean president Syngman Rhee ordered the massacre, but the South Korean government falsely blamed it on the communists led by North Korean leader Kim Il Sung. The South Korean government made efforts to conceal the massacre for four decades. Survivors were forbidden by the government from revealing it, under threat of being treated as communist sympathizers; public revelation carried with it the threat of torture and death. From the 1990s onwards, several corpses were excavated from mass graves, resulting in public awareness of the massacre. Half a century after the massacre, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated the massacre among other incidents that were largely kept hidden from history, unlike the well-publicized North Korean executions of confirmed and alleged South Korean right-wingers.

Bodo League

The Bodo League was an official group formed by the South Korean government under President Syngman Rhee, starting in 1949 and primarily working in 1950. The group was created by Korean jurists who had collaborated with the Japanese colonial government. Rhee and other government officials enrolled 300,000 suspected communist sympathizers or political opponents in an official "re-education" movement primarily known as the National Bodo League on the pretext of protecting them from execution. Non-communist sympathizers and others were also forced into the Bodo League to fill enlistment quotas.

In 1950, just before the outbreak of the Korean War, the first president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, had about 20,000 alleged communists imprisoned.

Executions

Under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, the Korean People's Army attacked from the north on 25 June 1950, starting the Korean War. According to Kim Mansik, who was a military police superior officer, President Syngman Rhee ordered the execution of people related to either the Bodo League or the South Korean Workers Party on 27 June 1950. The first massacre was started one day later in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province on 28 June. Retreating South Korean forces and anti-communist groups executed the alleged communist prisoners, along with many of the Bodo League members. The executions were performed without any trials or sentencing. Kim Tae Sun, the chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police, admitted to personally executing at least 12 "communists and suspected communists" after the outbreak of the war.……

Aftermath

After the UN offensive in which South Korea recovered its occupied territories, the police and militia groups executed suspected North Korean sympathizers. In October 1950, the Goyang Geumjeong Cave massacre occurred. In December, British troops saved civilians lined up to be shot by South Korean officers and seized one execution site outside Seoul to prevent further massacres. On 4 January 1951, the Ganghwa massacre was committed by South Korean police, who killed 139 civilians in an effort to prevent their collaboration with the North Koreans. According to a South Korean report, South Korea and the U.S. "aided right-wing civil organizations, such as the Ganghwa Self-defense Forces, by providing combat equipment and supplies."

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

In 2008, trenches containing bodies were discovered in Daejeon, South Korea, and other sites. South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented testimonies of those still alive and who took part in the executions, including former Daejeon prison guard Lee Joon-young.

Besides photographs of the execution trench sites, the National Archives in Washington D.C. released declassified photographs of U.S. soldiers at execution sites including Daejeon, confirming American military knowledge.