해방 후 경상북도 영덕군의 군경토벌 작전과 민간인 학살

Abstract

The study is about the massacre of civilians happened during the operation to suppress by the military and police in Yeongdeok-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, after liberation. Since 1946, the leftists in Yeongdeok-gun in Gyeongsangbuk-do engaged in activities in earnest to establish the People's Republic of Korea. They reinforced propaganda campaigns by forcing the masses of Yeongdeok County to hail the People's Republic or raise the beacon fire. The police cracked down on the people who participated in the left-wing movement and massacred the leftists as well as kept the family under constant surveillance. Consequently, the leftists went into the mountains and continued the activity to escape from police repression. Since then, they could step up their activities by joining North Korean Partisan which was sent to South Korea. Accordingly the south korean military set up the Taebaek Mountain District Combat Command post in September 1949 and carried out a large-scale evacuation operation in the Yeongdeok-gun which separated residents from the site of their livelihoods despite strong opposition of the residents from the beginning Unfortunately, the residents had no choice but to go back and forth for a living between two places, which caused them to be considered as partisans. The massacre had became a daily occurrence in Yeongdeok until the Military and Police forces finished the operation to suppress from 1947 to May 1950. Soldiers and police frequently went in and out of the village and conducted arrests, detention and massacre by treating the residents as enemies. The fact that the main agents of the civilian massacres were the Military and the Police forces means that the government should take the responsibility for them, even though it is late.