[KS] War cemeteries in North Korea

[William Brown]

One thing to keep in mind is the ellimination of grave sites all across 
China and North Korea after their communist parties took over. My father, 
for instance, who had grown up in China, returned there around 1985 and was 
asked; "what is different now?"  He said; "the graveyards are all gone."  
Graves had been a big part of the Chinese countryside as they are in South 
Korea today.

The official rational for cutting away the graves was to make room for more 
agriculture. But I suspect the real reason was to cut away Confuciansm and 
launch Marxist secularism. In that context, war cemetaries might have become 
ralling grounds for the old order.

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Chris Springer" <springer at hiddenhistory.info>
Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Subject: [KS] War cemeteries in North Korea
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 18:53:23 -0700


Dear Heonik Kwon -

North Korean sources maintain a deafening silence on Korean War
cemeteries. The DPRK does not like to commemorate its war losses,
military or civilian. Doing so would remind the population how
cosctly the Korean War was and make them more reluctant to fight
another war. The regime encourages anger at the enemy but not
tears for the departed.

Fallen soldiers of the Korean People's Army were initially buried
close to where they fell. In the 1960s the remains from their
scattered graves were collected and reburied in larger cemeteries.
One of these stands on a mountain on the outskirts of Pyongyang.

Chinese casualties of the war are buried in separate cemeteries.
(The military museum in Beijing displays a photo of one such
site.) DPRK sources are a tiny bit more forthcoming about these
places.

Information about burial places for civilians - war casualties
or otherwise - is likewise hard to come by. If memory serves,
in "North Korea under Communism," diplomat Erik Cornell asked
a North Korean where the cemeteries were. She replied that she
didn't know because, in the DPRK, not that many people die.

Chris Springer
www.hiddenhistory.info