ABSTRACT
A translation historian unsettled by the imbalance between the knowledge of the Korean War and that of interpreters who participated in the War took on a quest to find them. Narrowing the research scope to those who served in the process of the Korean Armistice Conferences, the historian charted a search route to primary sources. The explanatory note that the National Institute of Korean History (NIKH) presented to give basic understanding on the Proceedings of Korean Armistice Conferences (PKAC) functioned as a guide, and a group of interpreters was confirmed through individual pages of PKAC and crosschecked with first-hand accounts written by those on the scene. Four interpreters on quest are Horace G. Underwood, Richard F. Underwood, Sul Chun Sik, and To Yu Ho. This finding alone adds to what previous studies had found, which are themselves rare cases of looking into the interpreters in the Conferences. However, while investigating further through secondary sources, potential interpreters emerged. The translation historian again resorted to the most reliable primary source, PKAC, and so far, added to the list three more Korean-and-English interpreters, who all seem to be Korean nationals and joined in the latter stage of the Negotiations: “K M Chung,” “Bill Yu,” and “Y P Kim.” This second finding inevitably demands rewriting of the explanatory note that is presented by NIKH for PKAC.
