There were numerous atrocities and massacres of civilians throughout the Korean war committed by both the North and South Koreans. Many started on the first days of the war. South Korean President Syngman Rhee ordered the Bodo League massacre on 28 June,[125][333][334] beginning numerous killings of more than 100,000 suspected leftist sympathizers and their families by South Korean officials and right-wing groups.[335][336] During the massacre, the British protested to their allies and saved some citizens.[335][336]
In occupied areas, North Korean Army political officers purged South Korean society of its intelligentsia by executing every educated person—academic, governmental, religious—who might lead resistance against the North; the purges continued during the NPA retreat.[31] When the North Koreans retreated north in September 1950, they abducted tens of thousands of South Korean men. The reasons are not clear, but the intention might have been to acquire skilled professionals to the North.[337]
In addition to conventional military operations, North Korean soldiers fought the UN forces by infiltrating guerrillas among refugees. These soldiers disguised as refugees would approach UN forces asking for food and help, then open fire and attack. U.S. troops acted under a "shoot-first-ask-questions-later" policy against any civilian refugee approaching U.S. battlefield positions,[338] a policy that led U.S. soldiers to kill an estimated 400 civilians at No Gun Ri (26–29 July 1950) in central Korea because they believed some of the refugees to be North Korean soldiers in disguise.[339] The South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission defended this policy as a "military necessity".[340]