Due to the Korean War, the United Nations forces, led by the U.S. Army, the Battle of Sukcheon and Suncheon broke out when paratroopers descended on the area on October 20, 1950. The roadsides of Sukcheon afterwards were littered with corpses of local residents who had been involved and massacred. The U.N. troops passed by without taking any action while looking at the dead bodies.
When the UN forces retook Pyongyang in the Korean War on January 20, 1950, the US paratroopers suddenly dropped into Sukcheon, about 40 kilometers north of Pyongyang. The main force dropped into Sukcheon, and some dropped into Suncheon, each acting independently, in an operation to block the retreat of the North Korean forces. The first descent team sortied from Gimpo Airfield around noon on October 20. About 2,800 men of the first drop party jumped down to the hills in and around the Sukcheon Basin after bombing by bombers. The 1st Battalion occupied the 97th Highland east of Sukcheon and the 105th Highland to the north, eliminating what little North Korean resistance there was. At around 2:20 p.m., the second descent force dropped to a point about three kilometers southwest of Suncheon. The North Korean army, with its path of retreat completely cut off, was as good as a mouse in a bag, doomed to extermination and mistakenly believed that the Korean War was in its final stages. However, the main force of the North Korean army and the leaders of the regime were quick to cross the Cheongcheon River and evacuate to the north bank. Some of them took cover from the retreat of the main force at Yeongsan, about 10 kilometers south of Sukcheon. American and Korean POWs had already been transferred to the north. By 11:00 a.m. on October 22, they had overthrown about 1,070 remaining North Korean troops and taken about 880 prisoners. They were unable to round up the North Korean government leaders.
Arriving in Suncheon at around noon on October 20, the 1st Cavalry Division commander found about 66 gunned-down corpses strewn about in the Myeonggi Tunnel, about 8 km west of the city, among about 300 American POWs taken by the North Korean troops. In the afternoon of October 20, the North Korean train was evacuated into this tunnel from the start of the American airborne operation. In the evening, when about 100 POWs got off the train for lunch, the North Korean guards suddenly opened fire on them, massacring half of them. As for the casualties of the Battle of Sukcheon, about 49 American troops were killed and about 136 wounded. More than about 1,075 North Korean troops were killed in action and about 1,200 were taken prisoner. During the Battle of Changjin Lake from about November 27 to December 13, a huge Chinese People's Volunteer Army entered the war, which reversed the tide of the Korean War and the UN forces withdrew.
