American vet detained in N. Korea oversaw guerrillas in war, was to reunite in S. Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — Six decades ago in the Korean War, Merrill Newman supervised South Korean guerrillas who were perhaps the most hated and feared fighters in the North, former members of the group say.

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 as a tourist. 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.”

He was recognized

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.

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 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.

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.

But the guerrillas say most of the North’s charges were fabricated or exaggerated.

‘Don’t make sense’

Newman oversaw guerrilla actions and gave the fighters advice, but he wasn’t involved in day-today operations, according to the former rank-andfile 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.

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.”

‘Gentle American’

But analyst Cho Sunghun with the state-run Institute for Military History Compilation in Seoul said it’s “not weird” for war veterans to try to visit former battlegrounds 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.