Excavation resumes at Gyeongsan Cobalt Mine, stirring questions of memory and justice

Sixteen years after excavations halted in December 2008, amid an undermining of the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) mandate, a new phase of work has resumed at the Gyeongsan Cobalt Mine to search for the bodies of massacre victims killed by South Korean government forces. This time, the focus is on the vertical shaft beneath the second horizontal tunnel in Pyeongsan-dong, with a backing of 300 million won from Gyeongsan City and North Gyeongsang Province. If large-scale burials are verified, stakeholders will push for a nationally led excavation. For now, the budget is limited and the work slow, due to safety concerns. The project is overseen by the Hanbit Institute of Cultural Properties, which in 2023 cleared soil sacks left from previous digs. This year’s excavation marks a modest but meaningful step toward recovering and identifying remains and artifacts buried at one of Korea’s most significant massacre sites. Between July and September 1950, as the Korean War escalated, state forces — including local police in Gyeongsan and Cheongdo, the Gyeongbuk CounterWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times