Declassified CIA Docs Confirm MK-ULTRA Experiments on Korean POWs in 1950s

Newly declassified CIA documents confirm, for the first time, that Korean prisoners of war held by the United States during the 1950s were subjected to early MK-ULTRA experiments. The revelation validates decades of speculation about the scope of the program's coercive interrogation research and adds a significant new chapter to the documented history of CIA mind-control experiments.

The documents trace MK-ULTRA—known for its notorious use of LSD, torture, and other invasive techniques—to its origins under the codename Project Bluebird. According to records examined by The Intercept, in October 1950, the CIA selected 25 unnamed North Korean POWs as the first test subjects for what were described as "advanced" interrogation techniques. The stated objective was explicit: to develop methods capable of "controlling an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against such fundamental laws of nature as self-preservation." Prior to these documents, the only public reference to Koreans being used in the program appeared in journalist John Marks's landmark 1979 book, The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate."

The confirmation arrives amid ongoing debates over U.S. intelligence agency practices and historical accountability. MK-ULTRA operated across multiple universities, hospitals, and government facilities, with records destroyed in 1973 under then-CIA Director Richard Helms. Survivors, families, and legal scholars have long sought documentation of the program's full reach. The newly released materials, while incomplete, provide institutional confirmation of what previously existed only in investigative journalism and partial congressional testimony. Researchers note that the 1950 experiments on POWs represent an early and particularly ethically fraught phase of the program, predating its later expansion into domestic and civilian testing.