This AN-M65 general-purpose bomb was discovered Thursday, March, 7, 2024, at a construction site roughly 60 miles south of Seoul, South Korea. (South Korean air force)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — An unexploded 1,000-pound bomb leftover from the Korean War was partially dismantled and removed from a construction site last week south of Seoul, a South Korean air force spokesman said.
The AN-M65 general-purpose bomb from the 1950-53 conflict was discovered Thursday by workers at a construction site in Cheongju city, roughly 60 miles south of the capital, a South Korean air force spokesman said by phone Monday.
The spokesman declined to say precisely where the bomb was discovered. South Korean officials regularly speak to the media on a customary condition of anonymity.
Air Force explosive ordnance disposal specialists removed the bomb’s detonator about two hours after it was discovered, the spokesman said. The bomb was removed for further investigation, he said.
“Our [explosive ordnance disposal] members are experts and have always been making their efforts for national security and the people,” the spokesman said.
M65 bombs were dropped from P-47 Thunderbolt and B-26 Invader aircraft on “reinforced targets like dams and concrete or steel railroad bridges,” according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force’s website.
Unexploded ordnance dating to the Korean War are routinely discovered throughout South Korea.
In June, unexploded ordnance was safely recovered by the South Korean military at a construction site in Seoul, a little over a mile from the U.S. Army’s Yongsan Garrison.
U.S. aircraft dropped around 635,000 tons of bombs throughout the Korean Peninsula during the war, former University of Chicago professor Bruce Cumings wrote in his book, “The Korean War: A History.”
At least 5 million artillery rounds were fired by allied and communist troops in the final two months of the conflict and up to 2 million unexploded ordnance and land mines are estimated to remain on the border between North and South Korea, according to United Nations Command’s website.
