Openly licensed (CC BY 4.0; Korea Copyright Commission, Gongu Madang, per Wikimedia Commons) Korea Copyright Commission (Gongu Madang, gongu.copyright.or.kr); co-author U&People Co., Ltd.; contributor Busan Modern History Research Institute (Kim Han-geun); via Wikimedia Commons (File:BK한국전쟁삐라 016 1020 앞.jpg), CC BY 4.0.
Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.
This two-sided Korean leaflet, number 1020, was issued by the United Nations Command's psychological warfare service in 1951. It tells the citizens of Pyongyang that military targets in the city will be bombed within 48 hours and urges them to leave at once.
What the leaflet prints
Both sides are printed in red ink. The front is hand-lettered: a heading, then a starburst urging readers to get away from military sites while there is still time. The reverse is set in columns, read right to left, and addressed by name to the people of Pyongyang. It ends with the leaflet number.
平壤시민 여러분!
平壤에는 아직도 중요한 군사목표가 있습니다. 이러한 군사목표를 파괴해야만 합니다. 이것이 공산지도자들이 시작한 침략전을 끝내기 위한 길입니다.
이러한 군사목표는 四十八시간 이내에 폭격을 당하게 될것입니다
[…]
재빨이 떠나십시오!
1020
Citizens of Pyongyang! There are still important military targets in Pyongyang. These military targets must be destroyed. This is the way to end the war of aggression begun by the Communist leaders.
These military targets will be bombed within 48 hours.
[…]
Leave quickly!
Who issued it
The record names the United Nations Command, through U.S. Far East Command psychological warfare. The leaflet itself does not name an American unit, and the archive classes the source as blurred. The image comes from the Korea Copyright Commission's Gongu Madang collection, contributed by the Busan Modern History Research Institute, and is licensed CC BY 4.0 as the archive records it, not public domain.
How to read it
The archive tags it as a fear appeal with a deadline. That is accurate, and it is also not the whole of it. A warning to civilians before a raid can be two things at once: a pressure tactic that empties a city and blames its leaders, and a real chance for people to get out of the way. The leaflet says the UN hopes to spare innocent citizens, and that staying would put lives in needless danger.
What this page cannot say is whether the warning was followed by the raid it announced, how many people read it, or how many could leave. The record does not show those things. The moral weight of a warning depends on whether the people warned were free to act on it, and the record does not show whether they were.
FRAME object record, "Air raid warning: Citizens of Pyongyang, leave quickly," 1951. United Nations Command (U.S. Far East Command psychological warfare). Leaflet 1020.
Wikimedia Commons, File:BK한국전쟁삐라 016 1020 앞.jpg, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: CC BY 4.0; Korea Copyright Commission (Gongu Madang); co-author U&People Co., Ltd.; contributor Busan Modern History Research Institute (Kim Han-geun).
