Jeonju City Confirms Additional Remains on Hwangbangsan Mountain... Korean War 'Civilian' Casualties

Public Disclosure of Excavation Site and Interim Report to Bereaved Families

Scheduled for Enshrinement at Sejong Memorial House Following Procedures

Jeonju City in Jeollabuk-do announced on the 16th that over 100 additional remains were excavated at Hwangbangsan, where the remains of civilian victims from the Jeonju area who were unjustly killed during the Korean War rest.

This number exceeds the approximately 78 remains identified during the first and second investigations. After the excavation is completed, Jeonju City plans to conduct forensic analysis and organize personal belongings before enshrining the remains at the Sejong Memorial House.

On the 16th, Jeonju City confirmed over 100 additional civilian victims of the Korean War at Hwangbangsan located in Hyoja-dong and is conducting an on-site disclosure and interim report to the bereaved families.
[Photo by Jeonju City]

On the same day, about 30 people including the Jeonju University Museum investigation team, advisory committee members, bereaved family members, and city officials attended the "3rd Excavation Site Public Disclosure and Interim Report Meeting for Korean War Civilian Victims" held at the Hwangbangsan excavation site in Hyoja-dong.

At the interim report meeting, attendees listened to an explanation of the excavation results at Hwangbangsan in Hyoja-dong from Park Hyun-soo, Director of the Jeonju University Museum, who led the excavation, and discussed the future progress of the project.

As a result of this investigation, three rows of circular burial pits, three bloodletting pits, and three secondary burial sites were confirmed at the presumed burial site in Hwangbangsan, with a total of over 100 remains excavated.

Various personal belongings such as shoes, glasses, and buttons were unearthed inside the three rows of circular burial pits, and alongside these belongings, weapons believed to have been used by soldiers or police at the time, including M1 rifle casings and carbine casings, were also discovered near the victims.

In particular, the bloodletting pits that were buried individually provided materials that allow inference of the victims' conditions at the time of the massacre. This excavation is scheduled to continue until the end of this month.

Prior to this, since 2019, the city has been conducting excavation and full-scale investigations to recover the remains of civilian victims of the Korean War. Through the first and second excavations in 2019 and 2020, approximately 78 remains confirmed at Hwangbangsan in Hyoja-dong were excavated and enshrined at the Sejong Memorial House.

Park Hyun-soo, the director in charge of this excavation, stated, "The act of digging long pits and burying victims after the massacre shows that the massacre was carried out according to a certain plan," adding, "It may be possible to infer the circumstances before and after the massacre through some of the pits."

A Jeonju city official said, "In line with the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, we will continue to make efforts to address past history and restore the honor of the victims and their families," and added, "We will do our best to ensure the proper enshrinement of the remains going forward."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.