Charles J. Hanley, a journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in uncovering the No Gun Ri massacre, praised Korea's Grievious War, especially compared to other books about the subject such as The Coldest Winter.

His review mostly focuses on Hwang's research, which was made difficult the lack of records, by archivists resistant to showing her negative information about the actions of the United States government, and by survivors of massacres who were unwilling to relive their trauma.

He questioned Hwang's methodology in counting the number of victims, the way the book does not discuss atrocities committed by the North Koreans, and her use of the survivor's testimony to describe the events.

He then goes on to say that Hwang does not provide enough credit to US military forces for documenting, and eventually pressuring the South Korean government to stop, the massacres.

[5][6] According to Trembath, when first reading the chapter, found that the claims it made about the United States' role in influencing the modern North Korean government were "overstated" and "did not sit comfortably with the rest of the book".