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Declassified Documents Confirm CIA Experiments on Korean POWs in 1950s
Recently declassified CIA documents confirm that North Korean prisoners of war were subjected to early MK-ULTRA experiments while in U.S. custody during the 1950s. The documents detail Project Bluebird, which involved polygraph tests and plans for drug and hypnosis use. The National Security Archive released these records between December 2024 and April 2025.
Apr 26, 6:10 AM·2m read1 source
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The first reference to Project Bluebird appears in an April 5, 1950, office memorandum addressed to CIA Director Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter. The memo outlines the project's objectives, including the use of polygraph, drugs, and hypnotism for personality control, with knowledge restricted to a minimum number of persons.
Interrogation teams were to consist of a doctor, a hypnotist, and a polygraph technician, with training estimated at five months for the doctor and technician.
A February 2, 1951, memo inquires about acquiring six hypospray devices for injecting sedatives through the skin. It also requests investigation into modifying a tear gas pencil and other devices, such as a German 'Scheintot' pistol. The proposed budget for the project was $65,515, covering team salaries, equipment like syringes and film cameras, and $18,000 for transportation to redacted offshore locations.
A CIA meeting write-up from one year later notes a project in Japan and Korea where the Army used a polygraph operator along with a team of psychiatrists and psychologists on Korean POWs. Documents list specific problems for experimentation, including whether an action contrary to an individual's basic moral principles could be created, if a subject could be made to crash an airplane or wreck a train within one to two hours, if a person's personality could be altered and for how long, and if total amnesia could be guaranteed.
In Japan, a Project Bluebird team tested combinations of sodium amytal, benzedrine, and picrotoxin on four subjects to induce amnesia, with reports indicating success sufficient for further tests.
