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National Defense Corps incident

Death march that occurred in the winter of 1951 during the Korean War

Field	Value
title	National Defense Corps incident
image	국민방위군 징집자들.jpg
partof	the Korean War
caption	National Defense Corps soldiers in January 1951
date	December 1950 – February 1951
cause	Inadequate supplies due to embezzlement of funds
reported deaths	50,000–120,000
convicted	Kim Yoon Keun and four other officers
sentence	Death by firing squad
module

The execution of five commanding officers on 12 August 1951

The National Defense Corps Incident was a death march that occurred between December 1950 and February 1951, during the Korean War, as a result of corruption. The incident refers to both the deaths from starvation during the retreat and the corruption that led to the deaths.

Background

On 11 December 1950, South Korea issued an act establishing the National Defense Corps. South Korean citizens aged 17 to 40, excluding military, police, and government officials, were drafted into the National Defense Corps. The Syngman Rhee government then adopted officers from the pro-Rhee into the Corps.

March

406,000 drafted citizens were deployed in 49 training units. The National Defense Corps soldiers were then ordered to march south. However, funds for food purchases were embezzled by the National Defense Corps Commander Kim Yun-geun (; also spelled Kim Yoon-keun or Kim Yungun), son-in-law of Defense Minister Shin Song-mo. This led to the deaths of numerous soldiers from either malnutrition or frostbite.

Number of deaths and casualties

By June 1951, when an investigating committee made known its findings, it was reported that some 50,000 to 90,000 soldiers starved to death or died of disease on the march and in the training camps.

Figures vary on the number of deaths and casualties. According to a 13 June 1951 article in the New York Times, approximately 300,000 men were lost to death or desertion over a three-week 300-mile march.

According to a 2021 article in Foreign Policy by S. Nathan Park, 120,000 soldiers died from frostbite and malnutrition.

Aftermath

On 30 April 1951, the National Assembly of South Korea adopted a resolution on disbandment of the National Defense Corps. The National Assembly investigation showed that the commanding officers embezzled one billion won, and tens of millions of won was misappropriated to President Syngman Rhee's political fund.

In May 1951, Vice-President Yi Si-yeong resigned. In June, it was reported that five billion won in funds for the National Defense Corps had been embezzled. On 12 August 1951, five commanding officers were executed as persons in charge of the incident.

References

"국민방위군 National Defence Incident".
(9 March 2007). "Jinsilhwahaewi 'gugminbang-wigun' jiggwonjosa". [[:ko:뉴시스.
Terence Roehrig. (2001). "Prosecution of Former Military Leaders in Newly Democratic Nations: The Cases of Argentina, Greece, and South Korea". McFarland & Company.
(2010). "The Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History, 2nd Edition [3 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History". [[ABC-CLIO]].
(7 September 2010). ""Gugminbang-wigun sumanmyeong hangugjeonttae heomanghan jug-eum" ganbudeul-i gunsupum chagbog…gulm-eojuggeona jeon-yeombyeong hoengsa jinsilhwahaewi, maejangji deung hwag-in…gugga-e sagwa gwongo". [[Hankyoreh]].
Sandler, Stanley. "The Korean War: no victors, no vanquished". [[University Press of Kentucky]].
(13 June 1951). "50,000 KOREANS DIE IN CAMPS IN SOUTH; Government Inquiry Confirms Abuse of Draftees--General Held for Malfeasance". [[The New York Times]].
Park, S. Nathan. (2021-09-05). "Korea Was the United States' First Forever War".
(4 June 1951). "SOUTH KOREAN AIDE QUITS; Defense Minister Says He Was Implicated in Scandals.". [[The New York Times]].
(14 August 1951). "ROK General Executed for Army Thefts". [[Los Angeles Times]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

military-scandals political-scandals death-marches 1951-in-south-korea events-that-led-to-courts-martial massacres-in-1951 south-korean-war-crimes war-crimes-in-south-korea

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