Stories

Axes, Murders & Chaos: How A Poplar Tree Nearly Sparked War

Walls have been built to separate politically or culturally fractious nations all over the world, but none have been as long-lasting as the boundary between North and South Korea.

The no-man’s land, or demilitarised zone (DMZ), inbetween the two nations may have featured in the opening of James Bond film “Die Another Day”, but the real-life dramas that have unfolded in this strip of land over the past 60 years are no less absurd and shocking.

Within its 2.5 mile width there is a small plot of land where soldiers from both sides were once able to stand together: the Joint Security Area (JSA).

It was here, on August 18th 1976 that 15 American and South Korean troops were given the task of cutting back a Poplar tree which was obscuring the view between a UN observation post and checkpoint.

The axe reportedly used in the Axe Murder Incident

No-one thought that the axes they used to complete this job would result in murder and a major diplomatic incident.

Company Commander Captain Bonifas led a team to complete the job.

As they pruned the branches, an audience of KPA (North Korean) troops stood to watch for about 15 minutes before KPA leader, Senior Lt Pak Chul ordered them to stop their work.

Captain Bonifas carried on with his task.

Reinforcements from the North suddenly appeared, and they were ordered to kill the two US soldiers.

In a matter of minutes, both had been bludgeoned to death with axes and clubs.

All this was captured on a cine-camera from a nearby observation post.

The shocked reaction to these murders led to Operation Paul Bunyan (named after a lumberjack in American folklore).

Its mission: cut down the poplar tree. It was carried out in true gung-ho style three days later on August 21.

Although only 16 engineer troops would actually cut the tree down with chainsaws, they were backed up by 60 Joint Security soldiers, a 165mm main gun aimed at the North Korean entrance, two companies manning M4T6 rafts in case of an emergency evacuation, a further 64 South Korean special forces soldiers with M16 rifles, M17 grenade launchers and claymore mines...

20 utility helicopters, 7 Cobra attack helicopters were hovering nearby with B52 Stratofortresses, F-4 Phantom II’s and F-5 and F-86 fighters visible in the distance.

An aircraft carrier was stationed nearby, infantry and artillery armed with HAWK missiles were also on alert.

12,000 troops were ordered to Korea and nuclear-capable strategic bombers flew overhead.

Paralysed by the force, the North Koreans could only watch for three-quarters of an hour as the tree was cut down.

A 6ft stump was deliberately left standing but in 1987 a monument replaced it in the memory of the two American soldiers who died on August

18, 1976.

Between 1910 and 1945 Korea had been under Japanese rule and like much of Europe, the country was divided after the Second World War between the Communists, who oversaw the North, and the Allied forces who oversaw South Korea.

In 1950 the Soviet Union (USSR) and China, with political and military conviction, decided to invade South Korea.

This led to a hard-fought three-year war which, at its end, saw the country formally separate along the same lines as had been drawn before.

A US Army military police honor guard transferring the soldiers' bodies

The demilitarised zone that to this day marks the border was and is far from demilitarised.

North and South Korean forces are stationed along its entire 160-mile length.

The JSA no longer lets soldiers from either side rub shoulders with each other.

Instead, it attracts 100,000 tourists every year who get to look at the monument where once stood a single poplar tree that ignited a fatal and dramatic confrontation.