South Korea’s court orders first-ever compensation for Vietnam War victims

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – A South Korean court on Tuesday ordered the government to compensate a Vietnamese victim of atrocities during the Vietnam War in the 1970s, when about 300,000 South Korean troops fought alongside US forces.

The ruling marked the first legal recognition of South Korea’s responsibility for wartime atrocities and could potentially pave the way for other victims to seek compensation.

Seoul’s Central District Court ordered the government to provide Nguyen Thi Thanh, a survivor of the killing of civilians by South Korean forces, around 30 million won ($23,800) in compensation and additional funds for the delay.

Nguyen, 63, filed a lawsuit against the South Korean government in 2020, seeking about 30 million won in compensation. She said she lost family members and suffered wounds herself when South Korean marines killed about 70 civilians in her hometown in Vietnam’s central Quang Nam province in 1968.

“At the time, the soldiers forced the plaintiff’s family to come out of their home and threatened them with live ammunition and firearms before shooting at them,” the ruling said, according to Yonhap news agency.

“As a result, it is recognized that plaintiff’s family died at the scene and plaintiff and others sustained serious injuries.”

A court official confirmed the decision but said the full judgment was not immediately available for publication.

Nguyen, in a video call from Vietnam arranged by her lawyers after the verdict, welcomed the decision and said it was a “consolation to the souls who fell victim to the incident”.

The Seoul Ministry of Defense did not immediately comment. The State Department said the two countries had held close consultations on pending issues regarding the “forward-looking” advancement of diplomatic ties, which formally began in 1992.

“Over the past 30 years, Korea and Vietnam have achieved an unprecedented development of relations based on the principle, ‘Let’s put the unfortunate events of the past behind us and move to the future,’” the statement said.

Hanoi’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

($1 = 1,261.7400 won)

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Khanh Vu in Hanoi; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source