HWACHON DAM, Gangwon Province, Republic of Korea -- A monument was unveiled Sept. 2, to recognize the forgotten heroes who helped to capture the critical Hwachon Dam hydroelectric plant during the Korean War.
Eighth U.S. Army Deputy Commanding General Maj. Gen. Michael Kuehr attended the ceremony where the monument was unveiled to honor the sacrifices of the Korean Labor Organization, the group that provided crucial intelligence on the power plant to U.N. forces in 1951.
The ceremony was hosted by the Korean Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. Ltd. and the Korean Labor Organization Commemoration Association.
The KLO was a group of North Korean refugees that assisted U.N. troops with such tasks as carrying ammunition and supplies, unloading cargo ships and handling the deceased.
The Hwachon Hydro Power Plant was built in 1944 during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Today, it remains the second largest hydroelectric facility in South Korea with a capacity of 108 million watts.
The Hwachon Dam was occupied by enemy forces during the early days of the Korean War. U.N. forces captured the Hawchon Dam with the help of the KLO, although their story has remained largely untold.
The Hwachon Dam was a critical piece of real estate during the war because the energy it provided.A,A President Rhee Syng-man, the first president of the Republic of Korea, encouraged then 8th Army commander Gen. James Van Fleet to take the power plant.
Van Fleet accepted this challenge and launched a series of artillery attacks to clear the Chinese soldiers who were defending the plant. After each attack, the Chinese soldiers seemed to recover quickly and managed to put up a new set of cannons each time.
In April 1951, a KLO unit infiltrated the Chinese ranks and discovered the reason for their quick recovery: their cannons were fake wooden sculptures. These KLO infiltrator reports led to a successful raid on the power plant.
The KLO heroes from the Hwachon Power Plant raid remained largely unrecognized after the 1953 armistice that brought a 56-year ceasefire to the Korean peninsula.
"During the Korean War, thousands of KLO members were killed or left missing while they were infiltrating North Korea. The surviving KLO members are very few and we are now old, like the falling leaves of a tree," said Lee Chang-gun, chairman of KLO Commemoration Association. "I truly appreciate to see today's ceremony before the last leaf falls."
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