Attack on the Sui-ho Dam

The attack on the Sui-ho Dam was the collective name for a series of mass air attacks during the Korean War on thirteen hydroelectric generating facilities by United Nations Command air forces as part of the North Korean bombing campaign on June 23–24 and June 26–27, 1952. Primarily targeting the hydroelectric complex associated with the Sui-ho Dam in North Korea, the attacks were intended to apply political pressure at the stalled truce negotiations at Panmunjeom.

Heavily defended by Soviet, Chinese and North Korean Air Forces, as well as major anti-aircraft guns, the hydroelectric targets were subjected to attacks totaling 1,514 sorties. These were conducted jointly by fighters and fighter-bombers of the United States Air Force, US Navy, US Marine Corps, and South African Air Force, the first time in 21 months that the separate air arms had worked together on a massive scale. The attack on the facilities was followed seventeen days later by another series of large-scale joint attacks on the capital city of Pyongyang.

The attacks destroyed 90% of the facilities targeted and completely knocked out power in North Korea for two weeks, as well as reducing available power to northeast China by 23%. North Korea built new facilities but did not restore its previous capacity until after the armistice in 1953. Politically, the attacks failed to sway the truce talks, as highly publicized repercussions in both the UK and the United States Congress undermined their impact.

Four attacks on a much more limited scale occurred between September 12, 1952, and June 7, 1953, causing only minor damage and little impact on the outcome of the truce talks. UN forces also exerted pressure on the North Korean infrastructure by attacking the smaller power-generating plants of the North Korean power grid during the summer of 1952 to prevent them from filling the void in power generation.