Some wounds of the Korean War (1950-1953) are only just now being examined, more than 50 years after the war ended. In South Korea, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission has begun investigating the massacres South Korean forces are believed to have inflicted on suspected Communist sympathizers. Some 100,000 civilians and prisoners are believed to have been executed, in a dark episode of the nation’s history.

The truth Lee Tae-joon has been seeking for years may lie somewhere at the end of a tunnel in an abandoned cobalt mine. One day in July 1950, at the very beginning of the Korean War, his cousin disappeared. The local authorities suspected him of supplying Communist militants hidden in the mountains. He was picked up by the police. “In 1950, from early July to early September, five to ten trucks a day loaded with 25 to 30 people each were brought here,” says Lee, now president of an association for families of the victims. “Those people were bound, lined up and shot dead. Then their bodies were disposed of into this mine shaft, from the top of this mountain. Between 2007 and 2008, we started to discover skeletons down here, at the bottom, because all the tunnels had been filled with bodies.”

Up to 3,000 South Koreans suspected of being Communist sympathizers are believed to have been executed at the site, near the city of Daegu. A team of archaeologists has begun searching the site to shed light on the realities of the Korean War. A skull recovered from the site bears a hole, which Song Jang-geon, an anthropologist et Yeungnam University in Daegu, says “is evidence that people were being shot.” He continues: “We also found bullets, and cartridges were found here as well. This is evidence that mass killings were carried out here.”

The climate was one of terror. Soon after the war began, the North Korean army broke through quickly to the South and the Southern forces were desperate to stop the advance. Any person suspected of ideologically or materially supporting the enemy was eliminated. “So far, not enough has been uncovered to determine who exactly was issuing orders from the top,” says Kim Dong-choon, a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “However, we know that mass killings of civilians were committed by the South Korean police, the South Korean army, and North Korean troops. We found evidence that the mass killings were approved and then hidden by the South Korean government. We also found indications that US troops were either aware of what was taking place, or that they were involved in it.”

South Korean police documents methodically recorded the names, addresses and charges against the suspects. Such records were used long after the end of the Korean War.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s mandate will expire next year. And the Commission says, so far, it has only accomplished half of its task. The current conservative government has the authority to renew its mandate or not.