The aftermath of the Seoul Central District Court ruling ordering the South Korean government to pay 30 million won (about 3.1 million yen) to a woman survivor of the massacre of civilians by South Korean troops dispatched during the Vietnam War is showing signs of spreading. The number of victims massacred during the Vietnam War is enormous, and similar lawsuits may be filed by victims and their families. The Yun Suk-yeol administration needs to take this seriously. The souls of the victims will be comforted by the good news.
Nguyen Thi Thanh, 62, a survivor of the massacre, said in a video call with supporters after the verdict that she was wounded in the abdomen in 1968, when she was 7 years old, by Korean troops in the village of Quang Nam in central Vietnam. More than 70 people were killed in the village, including the woman’s mother and sister.
However, this massacre is only the tip of the iceberg.
From 1964 to 1973, South Korea deployed a total of 320,000 troops to the Vietnam War, the largest contingent of any nation other than the United States. The Korean newspaper Hankyoreh reported an estimate of “about 9,000 (victims)” in its Japanese electronic edition of September 23, 2016. Memorials and murals have been erected throughout Vietnam to commemorate the massacres committed by Korean troops.
In South Korea, the barbaric acts of the Korean military have long been taboo.
In 2000, when Hankyoreh 21, a weekly magazine published by Hankyoreh, ran a campaign report, the headquarters building in Seoul was surrounded by approximately 2,400 veterans and other military personnel. Some of them broke into the company, locked up the company’s executives, and vandalized computers and parked cars, leading to arrests.
What do you think of the court’s decision?
Kunitoshi Matsuki, director of the Institute of Korean Modern History, commented, “KBS News, one of the leading Korean news stations, took time to report the case extensively, and it is attracting attention domestically as well. One of the reasons behind this is that those who fought in the Vietnam War are no longer influential in society, and there is less opposition,” he said.
Yonhap News Agency reported on April 7 that “another wave of lawsuits by other victims may be on the way.
Matsuki said, “The Vietnamese people must be aware of this verdict. There is a possibility that new trials will occur one after another. If the issue grows, it could be taken up by the United Nations. It is possible that the barbaric acts of the South Korean military will be denounced internationally.
