Geojedo POW Camp

[Anchor Lead]

During the Korean War, 170,000 North Korean soldiers were held in a prisoner camp on Geoje-do Island, Gyeongsangnam-do Province. South Korea is seeking to add the POW camp to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Here is more.

[Pkg]

North Korean soldiers were held in the Geoje prison camp during the Korean War. Crowds of prisoners are seen protesting behind a barbed-wire fence. There is also video footage on an inter-Korean prisoners-of-war exchange at the truce village of Panmunjeom. The 1949 Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war were effectively first applied at the Geoje prison camp. Residential buildings and a bath house were designed and built at the site, a significant departure from previous camps in which prisoners were held in barracks.

[Soundbite] Jeon Kap-saeng(Asia Center, Seoul National University) : "It was the first example of devising camp policies,managing prisoners, collecting their personal details and fingerprints and operating education programs for the inmates."

Historical sites of Korean War POW camps remain in Geoje, Incheon, Jeju and Tongyeong, with two million related records held by 34 agencies in 18 countries. The Geoje city government plans to submit an application for the registration of the POW camp to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register Secretariat in March 2018. It will then seek to add the historical camp to the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.