Korean axe murder incident
The Korean axe murder incident was the killing of two United Nations Command officers, Captain Arthur Bonifas and First Lieutenant Mark Barrett, by North Korean soldiers on August 18, 1976, in the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The officers, from the United States Army, had been part of a work party cutting down a poplar tree in the JSA.
Remains of the tree that was the object of the 1976 axe murder incident, as seen in 1984. Deliberately left standing after Operation Paul Bunyan, the stump was replaced by a monument in 1987.
North Korean and UNC forces during the 1976 axe attack
OP No. 5 from which the pictures of the axe murder were taken
View from KPA No. 7 (near CP No. 2) towards CP No. 3, January 1976. Also visible in the picture (left to right) are KPA No. 4 across the Bridge of No Return, KPA No. 8 and KPA No. 5 (partially obscured behind the tree). This picture was taken early in the morning, before the North Koreans opened this checkpoint for the day.
The Joint Security Area is the only portion of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where North and South Korean forces stand face-to-face. The JSA is used by the two Koreas for diplomatic engagements and, until March 1991, was also the site of military negotiations between North Korea and the United Nations Command (UNC).
North Korean soldiers standing guard at the JSA between the blue buildings. View from the north. To the rear, the ground floor of Freedom House, in South Korea. The low-level concrete ledge running between the two soldiers is the border mark in the security area.
Main North Korean building, Panmungak, from Freedom House Pagoda in 1976
A view of Panmungak, from Freedom House Pagoda in 2009
The Military Demarcation Line separating between the North (left) and South (right), marked by a concrete slab between the conference buildings
