The Korean Wizard of the Hills: The Shaman’s War

During the Korean War, a persistent rumor circulated, attested to by testimonies and reports from the US Army and South Korean soldiers, that a militia shaman was said to exist on Mount Paektu.

Paektu Mountain or Baekdu Mountain (Korean: 백두산) is an active stratovolcano on the Chinese–North Korean border.[3] In China, it is known as Changbai Mountain (Chinese: 长白山). At 2,744 m (9,003 ft), it is the tallest mountain in North Korea and Northeast China and the tallest mountain of the Baekdu-daegan and Changbai mountain ranges. The highest peak, called Janggun Peak, belongs to North Korea. The mountain notably has a caldera that contains a large crater lake called Heaven Lake, and is also the source of the Songhua, Tumen, and Yalu rivers. Korean and Manchu people assign a mythical quality to the mountain and its lake, and consider the mountain to be their ancestral homeland.

He was a dry old man dressed in skins, speaking a dialect completely incomprehensible to ROK soldiers. He claimed to converse with the mountain spirits to tell North Korean soldiers where to pass undetected, providing weather/land predictions, and protect the mountain.

In March 1952, a South Korean squad captured a strange old man in the woods near Kilchu in Hamgyong province. He was carrying a wooden box containing animal bones, hair talismans and an ancient map. He refused to speak standard Korean.

After three days in detention, he was released on the orders of the South Korean commander, who feared a curse if the soldiers hurt or killed him.

They called him the Wizard of the Hills.  Some of the boys were terrified.  He’d show up after ambushes, walking barefoot with a staff and covered in ash.  The locals said the North trusted him more than their own scouts.

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The researcher who wrote this story down states that most of the sources mentioned come from Captain Wilkins’ diary, which he had been lucky enough to access, as they are unpublished sources/testimonies. Nothing has been published, not even in academic journals. There were personal manuscripts. There are sources of certain American military reports, such as those of the 2nd Psychological Warfare Battalion, which are classified in the US National Archives (NARA) under references RG-338. Some are partially declassified and not digitized, so the writer went to consult them on site.