On January 17, 1949, following the ambush and death of two soldiers in the 2nd regiment, 3rd battalion of the South Korean army near Bukchon Elementary School (북촌국민학교) a terrible tragedy unfurled. After a long deliberation by the village elders, the decision was made to bring the soldiers' bodies to the battalion headquarters located in Hamdeok.

However, this did not placate the army who responded by finding all 10 of the village elders, and except for one who had family members in the police, they were shot and killed. Additionally two platoons of soldiers were sent to Bukchon Village. The soldiers spent the entire morning carefully searching for any places that the villagers could hide in. As they went through the village the soldiers burned down the houses in Bukchon.

All of the villagers that were found were gathered at Bukchon Elementary School. The army formed a ring around the school to prevent anyone from escaping. The regiment commander arrived and tut-tutted the 'sloppy' work of the minbodan (민보단) and how they allowed this kind of thing to happen. The regiment commander ordered then ordered the villagers to separate into two groups, army/police family members in one and the Minbodan family members in the other. The villagers sensed what was coming and many tried to get into the army/police group. This caused some scuffles and confusion and several people were killed.

As the villagers continued to separate into groups, the battalion commander arrived on the scene and the officers began to discuss what to do with the remaining villagers. One officer commented that the majority of the enlisted soldiers there had no experience "killing the enemy", and that it would be good if they had a chance to build some experience. This suggestion was accepted. The soldiers began taking the villagers, group-by-group, either east to Dangpat field (단팟) or west to Neobeunsoongi (너븐숭이) where they were shot and executed.

Eventually people who were in the army/police group were allowed to go to the two locations to try and find any surviving family members and rescue them. However, by that time, over 300 people had been executed.

References and Original Sources

Jeju 4.3 Archives - "북촌국민학교" (readable here in Korean)

The Jeju Massacre - "Bukchon Village" (readable here in English)

Jeju Dark Tours - "너븐숭이 기녕관" (readable here in Korean)