I have been meaning to get to this latest article from Choe Sang-hun which describes how the Korean Truth & Reconciliation Commission is on the verge of being disbanded:

The remains of 108 people were found in a trench behind Kwangamri in South Korea. South Korean soldiers massacred them in 1951, according to survivors.

On a heavily forested hilltop behind this village, investigators are excavating the long-buried history of the South Korean men, women and children who cowered in a trench as their own country’s troops mowed them down during the Korean War.

It is a race against time. The investigators, from the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, are tapping into the memories of a dwindling number of survivors as they pursue their mission of examining some of modern Korea’s most traumatic moments. They also face the possibility that their mandate, which expires next year, could be ended or drastically curtailed under the conservative government of President Lee Myung-bak.

What they are finding as they dig up the remains at Kwangamri, 175 miles south of Seoul, is physical evidence that backs up once suppressed stories of atrocities during the 1950-53 war.  [New York Times via Marmot's Hole]

Read the rest of the article, which goes into more detail about the incident at Kwangam-ri that is further evidence of how brutal the guerrilla war and payback killings within South Korean society at the time was.  In South Korea the tragedy of the communist guerrilla war has been well known for years with the publication of Cho Jeong-lae’s groundbreaking book “Taebaek Sanmaek” that in great detail describes the effects of the guerrilla war and the follow on Korean War on the civilians who lived in the small South Korean village of Beolgyo. The battle of ideology led to many indiscriminate killings by both the ROK government as well as by the communists. Cho’s book was eventually made into in my opinion the best Korean film ever made, “Taebaek Mountains” in 1994 starring Ahn Sung-kee and directed by award winning director Im Kwon-taek.

So these bones being uncovered at Kwangam-ri are just evidence of something people in Korea already know about.  That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be recovered and documented though, however the people in the T&R Commission shouldn’t be the one doing it.  As regular readers of the ROK Drop know, I have long been against the T&R Commission because of how they have politicized their findings along with the sloppy historical research they have done.

Look no further then the President of the T&R Commission, Ahn Byung-ook to symbolize everything wrong with the commission and why it should be disbanded.  Ahn is a member of the Korean Peace Network which is a North Korea apologist group that has advocated for the removal of North Korea from the State’s Sponsors of Terrorism List and even signed a open letter to the American people published in the New York Times for Americans to vote for John Kerry and remove the Bush administration because of their North Korean policies.  If you read the open letter that Ahn signed it is just a litany of the usual North Korea apologist talking points to include how the former President Bush unfairly cancelled the Agreed Framework by falsely accusing Pyongyang of having a secret uranium program.  I wonder how stupid Ahn must feel considering how the North Koreans are now openly claiming to be nearing completion of their highly enriched uranium program and just about every other North Korea apologist has admitted to this fact as well.

Even more disturbing about Ahn if you once again read the open letter, is that he was an opponent of the North Korean Human Rights Act that was passed through the US Congress.  It sounds like Ahn may be spending to much time hanging out with former Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung. Maybe Professor Kim should spend more time listening to people like this and then maybe he can gain some idea about the tragedy going on in North Korea every single day.

Also keep in mind that Ahn is just one of many leftist ideologues on the commission that I have exposed before.  That is why the entire commission should be done away with, however that doesn’t mean I don’t think the work that they are doing shouldn’t be continued.  The commission has actually dug up some good documents and excavated areas that should prove helpful to researchers interested in compiling an accurate history of what happened instead of a revisionist history that current members of the commission seem intent on doing.  That is why I have proposed before that a joint UN research team from countries heavily involved in the Korean War could be formed to investigate the claims.  This won’t happen though because I don’t think either side of the political divide in Korea is interested in writing an accurate history so it is probably best that this commission just go away and allow independent researchers to conduct their own work.

By the way I do find it interesting that the Truth & Reconciliation Commission was able to find another site with plenty of bones, but at No Gun Ri not one bone has been found yet.