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 Some of those guerrillas, interviewed this week by The Associated
Press, remember Newman as a handsome, thin American lieutenant who
got them rice, clothes and weapons during the later stages of the
1950-53 war, but largely left the fighting to them.
North Korea apparently remembered him, too.
The 85-year-old war veteran has been detained in Pyongyang since
being forced off a plane set to leave the country Oct. 26 after a
10-day trip. He appeared this weekend on North Korean state TV
apologizing for alleged wartime crimes in what was widely seen as a
coerced statement.
"Why did he go to North Korea?" asked Park Boo Seo, a former member
of the Kuwol partisan unit, which is still loathed in Pyongyang and
glorified in Seoul for the damage it inflicted on the North during
the war. "The North Koreans still gnash their teeth at the Kuwol
unit."
Park and several other former guerrillas said they recognized Newman
from his past visits to Seoul in 2003 and 2010 — when they ate raw
fish and drank soju, Korean liquor — and from the TV footage, which
was also broadcast in South Korea.
Newman was scheduled to visit South Korea to meet former Kuwol
fighters following his North Korea trip. Park said about 30 elderly
former guerrillas, some carrying bouquets of flowers, waited in vain
for several hours for him at Incheon International Airport, west of
Seoul, on Oct. 27 before news of his detention was released.
Newman has yet to tell his side of the story, aside from the
televised statement, and his family hasn't responded to requests for
comment on his wartime activities. Jeffrey Newman has previously
said that his father, an avid traveler and retired finance executive
from California, had always wanted to return to the country where he
fought during the Korean War.
Newman's detention is just the most recent point of tension on the
Korean Peninsula. North Korea has detained another American for more
than a year, and there's still wariness in Seoul and Washington
after North Korea's springtime threats of nuclear war and vows to
restart its nuclear fuel production.
According to his televised statement, Newman's alleged crimes
include training guerrillas whose attacks continued even after the
war ended, and ordering operations that led to the death of dozens
of North Korean soldiers and civilians. He also said in the
statement he attempted to meet surviving Kuwol members.
Former guerrillas in Seoul said Newman served as an adviser for
Kuwol, one of dozens of such partisan groups established by the
U.S.-military during the Korean War. They have a book about the unit
that Newman signed, praising Kuwol and writing that he was "proud to
have served with you." The book includes a photo of Newman that
appears to be taken within the last 10-15 years.
But the guerrillas say most of the North's charges were fabricated
or exaggerated.
Newman oversaw guerrilla actions and gave the fighters advice, but
he wasn't involved in day-to-day operations, according to the former
rank-and-file members and analysts. He also gave them rice, clothes
and weapons from the U.S. military when they obtained key
intelligence and captured North Korean and Chinese troops. All Kuwol
guerrillas came to South Korea shortly after the war's end and
haven't infiltrated the North since then, they say, so there are no
surviving members in North Korea.
"The charges don't make sense," said Park, 80.
In the final months of the war, Newman largely stayed on a front-line
island, living in a small wooden house, said Park Young, an
81-year-old former guerrilla.
"He ate alone and slept alone and lived alone," said Park, one of
200 guerrillas stationed on the Island.
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When the U.S. Eighth Army retreated from the Yalu River separating
North Korea and China in late 1950, some 6,000 to 10,000 Koreans
initially declared their willingness to fight for the United States,
according to a U.S. Army research study on wartime partisan actions
that was declassified in 1990.
The report says the U.S. Army provided training and direction to the
partisans, who had some "measurable results." But ultimately the
campaigns "did not represent a significant contribution," in part
because of a lack of training and experience of Korean and U.S.
personnel in guerrilla warfare.
Former Kuwol fighters claim to have killed 1,500 North Korean
soldiers and captured 600 alive. About 1,270 Kuwol members perished
during the war, according to surviving unit members.
The guerrillas aren't alone in questioning Newman's trip to North
Korea.
"Newman was very naive to discuss his partisan background with the
North Koreans," Bruce Cumings, a history professor specializing in
Korea at the University of Chicago, said in an email. "The South
Korean partisans were possibly the most hated group of people in the
North, except for out-and-out spies and traitors from their own
side."
But analyst Cho Sung-hun with the state-run Institute for Military
History Compilation in Seoul said it's "not weird" for war veterans
to try to visit former battle grounds before they die.
Cho, who interviewed Newman in 2003 for a book on guerrilla warfare
during the Korean War, described him as a "gentle American citizen"
and said North Korea should not trigger a new source of tension with
his detention.
Some analysts see Newman's alleged confession as a prelude to his
release, possibly allowing the North Koreans to send him home and
save face without going through a lengthy legal proceeding.
North Korea has detained at least seven Americans since 2009 and
five of them have been either released or deported. Korean-American
missionary and tour operator Kenneth Bae has been held for more than
year.
The Korean War is still an extremely sensitive topic in North Korea.
It ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean
Peninsula still technically at war.
"It seems absurd from a public relations standpoint to arrest an
85-year-old man who came with goodwill," Cumings said. "But the
North Koreans are still fighting the Korean War and grasp every
chance they get to remind Americans that the war has never ended."
[Associated
Press; FOSTER KLUG and
HYUNG-JIN KIM]
AP writers Eun-Young
Jeong in Seoul, Matthew Pennington in Washington and Martha Mendoza
in California contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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