A Different Chuseok Harvest

August 18, 2008
BBC News

For decades, Lee Tae-joon has wondered what became of his cousin, his childhood companion, who disappeared without trace at the start of the Korean War.

Now he thinks he knows the answer.

At an abandoned cobalt mine near the South Korean city of Daegu, evidence of a massacre is being slowly uncovered.

With brushes and trowels, working ankle-deep in water, a team of archaeologists is sweeping away the top-soil to reveal a mass of human bones.

It is thought that this cold tomb contains the bodies of up to 3,000 people who were executed and then thrown into a vertical mine shaft.

Mr Lee believes his cousin was one of them.

"My heart really breaks when I think that all this killing took place without any judicial process, and by our own forces," he said.

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