The scene of the Axe Murder Incident

The axe murder incident, the most brutal event in the history of Panmunjom's JSA, occurred on August, 18th, 1976. It served to heighten tension between South and North Korea creating an environment that lead right up to the brink of war. A tall poplar tree was located near UNC checkpoint 3 and the Bridge of No Return. The tree limited visibility in the direction of checkpoint 4 for the soldiers working at checkpoint3. So, five South Korean civilian workers were dispatched to conduct the tree trimming operation under the protection of a UNC guard force.

At that time, two North Korean officers and dozens of KPA soldiers demanded that they should stop working. But when the workers continued with their mission and ignored the request to stop, another North Korean guard force arrived by truck and began to attack by wielding clubs and axes. During the incident, the JSA Company Commander, Captain Arthur Bonifas, and First Platoon Leader, First Lieutenant Mark Barrett, were brutally axed to death by North Koreans.
Immediately after the incident, the United States and the South Korean troops entered a state of alert declaring ‘DEFCON 3 ’.
The United States dispatched battalions of fighter-bomber F-4’s and F-111’s each to South Korea and sent the aircraft carrier ‘Midway’ to the west sea of South Korea. So, the Korean Peninsula was again brought to the brink of war. This tension only ceased after the North Korean leader Kim Il-sung expressed his regret and sent a letter of apology to the United Nations Command.
After this incident, the MDL became a permanent separation between the guard forces of South and North Korea from September 1976 on.
In response, the United Nations Command carried out Operation ‘Paul Bunyan’ in order to cut down the tree.

The Axe Murder Incident #1	The Axe Murder Incident #2	A stone monument dedicated to the soldiers of the Incident.