Pyongyang, August 18 (KCNA) — Remains of patriots and other people massacred by the enemies during the Korean war and relics were unearthed in Jangbang-ri, Haeju City of South Hwanghae Province of the DPRK.

The U.S. imperialists and class enemies killed more than 260,000 innocent people in the province alone in that period.

Remains of more than 170 patriots and other people who were mercilessly killed by the class enemies by orders of the U.S. imperialists were unearthed in a pit on a hillside in Jangbang-ri.

Also discovered were at least 200 relics of more than 10 kinds including publications at that time, clothes, shoes, buttons and belts as well as ropes, handcuffs, bullets and cartridges, etc.

These remains and relics and other findings bear witness to the thrice-cursed atrocities committed by the enemies.

I will be uploading various types of data ranging from archival photographs of alleged North Korean war crimes (pulled from the U.S. National Archives Record Group 153) to North Korean depictions of alleged U.S. war crimes (pulled from textbooks and government publications).

In this endeavor, I intend to involve my students, young historians at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, but would of course welcome contributions by other interested parties.  This includes my former students!   The goal is to spread this data far and wide, and to uncover the deeper meaning and potentially hidden wounds in the U.S.-North Korean relationship.  Americans may have largely forgotten the Korean War, but it is alive and well on the Korean peninsula, particularly amid the North Korean populace.  By describing what happened in the documents and understanding North Korea’s narrative of the war, we might move closer to a kind of mutual understanding, or at least an agreement to disagree about commonly established facts. 

In some ways the first entry of this blog was written on May 5, and posted on the Sinologistical Violoncellist blog.  I think that Sinchon is a good a place as any to start the discussion.