The Panmunjom axe murder incident (Korean: 판문점 도끼 살인 사건), also known as the Korean axe atrocity incident, was the killing of two United Nations Command officers, Captain Arthur Bonifas and First Lieutenant Mark Barrett, by North Korean soldiers on August 18, 1976, in the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The officers, from the United States Army, had been part of a work party trimming a poplar tree in the JSA.
Three days later, US and South Korean forces launched Operation Paul Bunyan, an operation that cut down the tree with a show of force to intimidate North Korea into backing down, which it did. North Korea then accepted responsibility for the earlier killings.
The incident is also known alternatively as the hatchet incident, the poplar tree incident, and the tree trimming incident.
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