Prisoners of war in Korea

The taking of prisoners of war and their treatment has varied a great deal historically...

Some armies have refused to take prisoners and executed all who fell into their hands. Other armies accept prisoners but do not treat them well. A third and rarer case is when prisoners are taken, and are well treated during their captivity. During the Korean War prisoners were usually accepted, but their treatment differed widely.

A body of international agreements, called the Geneva conventions, covers the treatment of the victims of war. The third convention of 1929 dealt in particular with prisoners of war and the fourth was signed by 194 countries in the year before the Korean War began. However, not all the major combatants in Korea were signatories to the 1949 Geneva Convention. During the first North Korean offensive in 1950 some United Nations Command (UNC) prisoners were treated well; there was adequate food and some medical treatment. Occasionally, after a crude program of indoctrination, prisoners were released. Three captured Australians were fortunate to be in this category. Taken when their patrol was surrounded they were subject to political lectures but released after a few days.

As the war continued the communist treatment of prisoners became harsher. Many suffered starvation and acts of brutality, including execution. Thousands of prisoners of war died. North Korean treatment of South Korean prisoners was particularly harsh.

The exchange of prisoners was a bone of contention once negotiations to end the war began. There were disputes about how many prisoners each side was holding. Of 188,000 the communists claimed were missing just 81,000 were returned at the end of the war. Perhaps 30,000 of the rest were South Koreans forced to join the North Korean army. Others were missing in action and some were the 22,600 prisoners who refused to return to their own country. A few had died in prison riots – on Koje island in 1952 89 prisoners were shot by guards. Another 38,000 were prisoners held by the UNC who were later reclassified as civilian internees.

The UNC believed there might be as many as 65,000 UNC personnel in communist captivity but only 13,000 were returned. At least 12,000 died in captivity. The fate of the rest is unclear. In 2007 the South Korean Government stated that what happened to 19,409 of its soldiers had still not been confirmed.

It is impossible to be precise about the total prisoner of war numbers for the Korean War. The UNC took at least 182,000 prisoners, including those later reclassified as civilians and South Koreans forced to serve North Korea. The Chinese and North Koreans probably captured about 62,000 prisoners of war, mostly South Koreans.

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Australian prisoners

Thirty Australians were captured during the Korean War …

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Six were Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) aircrew who survived being shot down over enemy territory. The other 24 were taken prisoner on the battlefield while serving with the Australian Army.

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Three Australian soldiers were released on 9 February 1951, soon after having been captured. Three more were released in Operation Little Switch, the first prisoner exchange, in April 1953. The remainder, except Private Horace W Madden, were released at the end of the war in a general exchange of prisoners of war. Madden was the only Australian to die while in captivity.

For his courage while a prisoner of war he was posthumously awarded the George Cross (GC). The citation states:

Testimonials have been provided by officers and men from many units of the Commonwealth and allied forces which showed that the heroism he displayed was outstanding. Despite repeated beatings and many other forms of ill-treatment inflicted because of his defiance to his captors, Private Madden remained cheerful and optimistic. Although deprived of food because of his behaviour, resulting in malnutrition, he was known to share his meagre supplies purchased from Koreans with other prisoners who were sick. This did not deter him and for six months, although becoming progressively weaker, he remained undaunted in his resistance. He would in no way co-operate with the enemy. This gallant soldier's outstanding heroism was an inspiration to all his fellow prisoners.

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Private Bob Parker's story

Private Robert Parker, 3 Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, was captured at the Battle of Kapyong …

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Parker served with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. Before joining the army, he was a motorbike racer in NSW, and when 3RAR went to Korea, he became a despatch rider riding a Harley-Davidson.

During the Battle of Kapyong in April 1951, Parker found himself alone, urging his bike along a muddy track, when a sudden burst of small arms fire struck him, and he crashed. He claimed to be ‘the only person who was shot off a Harley’. After an exchange of fire with the Chinese infantry who had shot him, he buried his weapon and surrendered.

I was terrified, but I put up my hands and smiled at them. They came up and patted me on the back and told me I was a brave soldier.

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Although wounded, Parker could walk. He recalls falling to the ground on the march, and thinking that the guards would shoot him. Another Australian urged him on, and he kept walking. They took him to Camp 5 beside the Yalu River in far northern Korea. Food was sporadic, the weather freezing, and the treatment inhumane. Parker escaped several times but was always recaptured. In June 1952, 20 prisoners, including Parker, escaped from the camp. They were soon caught and placed in a punishment cell. Parker had a pistol placed against his head by a Chinese officer who wanted to know who had led the escape attempt.

In another camp, Parker was subject to indoctrination classes.

They wanted to convert the prisoners to communism. They hoped we would go on the radio and tell the Australian soldiers that they should not be in Korea.

In a third camp, food was so scarce that when a prisoner died in the barracks during the night, the others would try to conceal the fact so they could eat the dead man's ration.

'The thing that kept me going was thinking about getting home one day.' Parker was listed as missing in action after Kapyong and it was seven months before his family learned that he was alive and a prisoner of war.

Parker was released in Operation Big Switch, the exchange of over 100,000 prisoners at the end of the Korean War.

Other prisoners

The first year of the Korean War saw four great military disasters befall the armies on either side …

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It was in this period when the great majority of prisoners of war were taken as armies fell back disorganised after defeat in battle. North Korea, for instance, lost 135,000 of 150,000 captured in the entire war, in the two months when the army disintegrated as it fled north in late 1950.

In the final two years of static warfare there were fewer big battles and less prisoners were taken. Both sides did sometimes send a 'body-snatching party' at night into the other's trenches to obtain a prisoner for interrogation. Thus the majority of prisoners taken were confined for two or three years. Prisoners of war were exchanged in Operation Little Switch in April 1953, before the war ended. The communists repatriated 684 United Nations Command (UNC) personnel in exchange for 1,030 Chinese, 5,194 North Koreans and 446 civilians. The issue of the forced repatriation of prisoners may have prolonged the war. The UNC insisted that no prisoner of war should be forced to return against their will. The communist negotiators refused to agree until early in 1953 after which the remaining issues in the way of a ceasefire were rapidly sorted out.

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The final exchange of prisoners was Operation Big Switch, from August to December 1953. Like Little Switch it was marked by controversy over voluntary repatriation and allegations of the brainwashing and torture of UNC prisoners by the communists. The issue of forced repatriation of prisoners proved the major stumbling block to peace. It was agreed that a Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission (NNRC), chaired by India, would take responsibility for prisoners who had indicated a desire to remain with their captors. They were given 90 days to decide if they would stay or go. Some 22,600 communist prisoners of war opted not to return to their homelands. One soldier from Britain, 21 Americans and 325 South Koreans chose to remain in North Korea.

Since the Korean War all countries except North Korea have issued reasonably reliable estimates of the number of enemy they captured and the number of their own soldiers missing. Some of the missing were killed in battle and some became prisoners but in thousands of cases it is not known which occurred. Many died in prison camps in North Korea. For these reasons the following figures cannot be regarded as definitive.