Once misidentified, Korean War hero gets top award

Lauded in the DPRK, soldier thought missing in action is honored posthumously

Thirty-five years after the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53) broke out, Chai Yunzhen, a former member of the People's Volunteer Army, set foot on the Korean Peninsula for the second time on a visit to the military museum in Pyongyang in 1985, only to discover that he had never truly left.

During his visit to the Democratic Republic of Korea's capital, the then 59-year-old veteran was surprised to see his portrait hanging in the museum, as the interpreter explained that the person in it was one of the 197,653 Chinese soldiers who sacrificed their lives to restore peace on the peninsula.

Chai was a squad head during the war, and the story of the four-man team he led, which captured three positions in 20 minutes, has long been remembered and celebrated in the DPRK.

On May 30, 1951, at the Battle of Bakdalbong, a mountain close to the war zone between the Republic of Korea and the DPRK, Chai's battalion was engaged in an operation to stop a multinational force from moving north.

It was a brutal six-day battle that led to the deaths of over 1,000 soldiers on both sides.

On the penultimate day, after being ordered to retake the three fortified positions, Chai waged an all-out attack with only three soldiers, the others already having been killed.

Fighting was fierce and they engaged in hand-to-hand combat, but their experience and bravery led them to victory.

When the battle was over, Chai was hospitalized with a missing finger and 24 wounds to his body.