Paik Sun-yup, major South Korean war hero, dies at 99

11/7/2020 12:04

        Former South Korean army Gen. Paik Sun-yup, who was celebrated as a major war hero for leading troops in several battle victories against North Korean soldiers during the 1950-53 Korean War, has died. He was 99.
        
        Born in 1920 in what is now North Pyongan province in North Korea, Paik graduated from a Japanese military academy in Manchuria when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule and was a lieutenant in the Japanese army during World War II.
        
        Paik, in the early 1940s, participated in several Japanese military operations to eliminate Korean guerrilla groups fighting for independence in northeastern China, a record his critics saw as a huge blot on his legacy.