The Panmunjom axe murder incident (Korean: 판문점 도끼 살인 사건) 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 trimming a poplar tree in the JSA.
Three days later, US and South Korean forces launched Operation Paul Bunyan, an operation that cut down the tree with a show of force (including helicopters and nuclear-capable bombers) to intimidate North Korea. Directly following the operation, North Korean president Kim Il Sung sent a statement to US military representatives de-emphasizing the violence and promoting mutual peace, which paused escalations.
The incident is also known alternatively as the Korean axe atrocity incident, the hatchet incident, the poplar tree incident, and the tree trimming incident.
In the Joint Security Area (JSA), near the Bridge of No Return (through which the Military Demarcation Line runs), a 30-metre (98 ft) poplar tree blocked the line of sight between a United Nations Command (UNC) checkpoint and an observation post.
On one occasion before the incident, North Korean soldiers had held a group of US troops at gunpoint. The Joint Security Force (JSF) company commander, Captain Arthur Bonifas, was then sent to force the North Koreans to stand down and to bring the Americans back to safety, and he did so successfully. Bonifas was later one of the soldiers killed in the axe murders.
Wayne Kirkbride, an officer at the DMZ at the time, recalled hearing that North Korean soldiers had told members of a work force sent to cut the tree that they could not, as it had been planted by their leader, Kim Il Sung.
On August 18, 1976, a group of five Korean Service Corps (KSC) personnel were escorted by a UNC security team consisting of Captain Arthur Bonifas; his South Korean army counterpart, Captain Kim; the platoon leader of the current platoon in the area, First Lieutenant Mark Barrett; and 11 enlisted personnel, both American and South Korean.
The two captains did not wear sidearms, as members of the Joint Security Area were limited to five armed officers and 30 armed enlisted personnel at a time. However, there were mattocks in the back of the 2 1⁄2-ton truck. The KSC workers had the axes that they had brought to prune the tree branches.
After the pruning began, about 15 North Korean soldiers appeared, commanded by Senior Lieutenant Pak Cheol (박철), whom the UNC soldiers had nicknamed "Lieutenant Bulldog" because of a history of confrontations. Pak and his subordinates appeared to observe the pruning without concern for approximately 15 minutes. Then, Pak abruptly told the UNC to cease the activity and stated that the tree could not be pruned. Captain Bonifas ordered the detail to continue and turned his back on the North Koreans.
After being ignored by Bonifas, Pak sent a runner across the Bridge of No Return. Within minutes, a North Korean guard truck crossed the bridge and approximately 20 more North Korean guards disembarked carrying crowbars and clubs. Pak again demanded that the pruning cease. When Bonifas again turned his back on him, Pak removed his watch, carefully wrapped it in a handkerchief, placed it in his pocket, and shouted, "Kill the bastards!" Using axes dropped by the tree pruners, the Korean People's Army (KPA) forces attacked both US soldiers, Bonifas and Barrett, and wounded all but one of the UNC guards.
Bonifas was knocked to the ground by Pak and then bludgeoned to death by at least five North Koreans, and Barrett jumped over a low wall that led past a 4.5-metre (15 ft) deep tree-filled depression just across the road from the tree. The depression was not visible from the road because of the dense grass and small trees. The entire fight lasted for only 20 to 30 seconds before the UNC force dispersed and the North Korean guards placed Bonifas's body in their truck. There was no sign of Barrett, and the two UNC guards at OP No. 5 could not see him.
The UNC force observed the North Korean guards at KPA No. 8 along the UNC emergency egress road exhibiting strange behaviour, in that one guard would take an axe and go down into the depression for a couple of minutes and then come back and hand the axe to another guard, who would repeat the action. This went on for approximately 90 minutes until the UNC guards at OP No. 5 were informed that Barrett was missing, when they informed their superiors about the KPA activity in the depression. A search-and-rescue squad was quickly dispatched and found that Barrett had been attacked with the axe by the North Koreans. Barrett was recovered and transported to a hospital in Seoul via an aid station at Camp Greaves; he died on the journey.
Captain Shirron (Bonifas's replacement), Captain Shaddix, the joint duty officer's driver, the joint duty officer, and the OP No. 5 guard witnessed the attack from OP No. 5 and recorded the incident with a black-and-white film camera, which ran out of film, and Shaddix's 35 mm camera with a telephoto lens. The UNC guard at CP No. 3 (Bridge of No Return) recorded the incident with a movie camera.
Shortly after the incident, the North Korean media began airing reports of the fight. The North Korean version stated:
Around 10:45 a.m. today, the Americans sent in 14 soldiers with axes into the Joint Security Area to cut down the trees on their own accord, although such a work should be mutually consented beforehand. Four persons from our side went to the spot to warn them not to continue the work without our consent. Against our persuasion, they attacked our guards en masse and committed a serious provocative act of beating our men, wielding murderous weapons and depending on the fact that they outnumbered us. Our guards could not but resort to self-defence measures under the circumstances of this reckless provocation.
Within four hours of the attack, Kim Jong Il, the son of the North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung, addressed the Conference of Non-Aligned Nations in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and presented a prepared document describing the incident as an unprovoked attack on North Korean guards that had been led by American officers. He then introduced a resolution asking the conference to condemn that day's grave US provocation, and he called on participants to endorse both the withdrawal of US forces from South Korea and the dissolution of the UNC, which was seconded by Cuba. The members of the conference passed the resolution.
The CIA considered the attack to have been planned by the North Korean government. A variety of responses were evaluated. Readiness levels for American forces in South Korea were increased to DEFCON 3 early on August 19. Rocket and artillery attacks in the area were considered but discounted because of an unfavorable 4:1 ratio of artillery pieces, and South Korean President Park Chung Hee did not want military action.
In response to the incident, the UNC determined that instead of trimming the branches that obscured visibility, they would cut down the tree with the aid of overwhelming force. The parameters of the operation were decided in the White House, where US President Gerald Ford had held crisis talks. Ford and his advisors were concerned about making a show of strength to chasten North Korea without causing further escalation. The operation, named after the mythical lumberjack, was conceived as a show of force by the US and South Korea and was carefully managed to prevent further escalation. It was planned over two days by General Richard G. Stilwell and his staff at the UNC headquarters in Seoul.