failed to prevent the secret police that came with them from perpetrating the civilian murders; however, the TFD did not participate themselves. Furthermore, according to the institute, when Communists retook the city, the population was again purged. South Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong claims that the massacre was caused by a local rivalry that used the fog of war as a pretense. In 1989, Chicago Tribune, the journalist Uli Schmitzer wrote: If any truth about massacres in Chichon (Sinchon) ever existed, the evidence has long ago been obscured. The town, 70 miles [110 km] south of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, has been turned into a national shrine by a ruthless propaganda machine that has fueled anti-American passions for 36 years in support of an institutionalized, regimented communist regime. The author Bruce Cumings, in his book War and Television, stated: the major part of the Sinch’on massacres were carried out by Korean Christians who had fled the Sinch’on area for the South. In my opinion, If any Americans were present they were probably KMAG [Korean Military Advisory Group] personnel, who witnessed many South Korean atrocities against civilians; the Koreans I spoke with were adamant that Americans had carried out the massacres, but it is also true that Koreans do not like to admit that Koreans could do such things, unless they are following American or (in the colonial period) Japanese orders.Bruce Cummings, War and Television, 1994 Representation in other media South Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong's novel The Guest, based on interviews with a Korean Christian pastor, addresses the Sinchon massacre. See also List of massacres in North Korea List of massacres in South Korea Massacre in Korea, a painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Sinchon massacre Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities References Further reading Jong-yil Ra "Governing North Korea. Some Afterthoughts on the Autumn of 1950". Journal of Contemporary History Vol. 40, No. 3 (Jul. 2005), pp. 521–546 doi:10.1177/0022009405054570 1950 in North Korea Conflicts in 1950 Korean War crimes Mass murder in 1950 Massacres committed by South Korea Massacres in Korea Massacres in North Korea North Korea–United States relations History of South Hwanghae Province Massacres in 1950