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To Ngoc Luyen

The sun was beating down at 3 on the afternoon of June 28. The voice of To Ngoc Luyen, a 40-year-old exchange student from Vietnam, rang out in front of the Central Government Complex in downtown Seoul. At the press conference, which was held to encourage a just resolution to the issue of massacres of Vietnamese civilians by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War, To began slowly reading an open letter to the South Korean public.

“Living in South Korea, I have seen how South Korea endlessly resents Japan,” she said.

“Anyone who goes to another country and kills people for any reason should reflect on that, and I myself have been angered by the way the Japanese government seems not to have done that,” she continued.

“I think that South Korea can become a truly advanced country once it reflects on the many Vietnamese civilians who lost their lives at the hands of South Korean soldiers.”

When asked why she had written the letter, To explained, “I’ve heard Vietnam veterans say, ‘I’m a Vietnam veteran, and I’d like to go to Vietnam someday to teach Hangul [Korean script] and taekwondo,’ and I would think of the [massacre] victims. It was so painful for me that I decided I should write a letter.”

an exchange student from Vietnam

Titled “A Just South Korea Starts with Reflection on the Vietnam War,” the press conference that day was attended by representatives of the Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation, the Asia Peace and History Education Network, and around 50 other civic groups calling on Seoul to adopt a more responsible approach to the civilian massacre issue, including an investigation.

The press conference statement was read by Buddhist monk Myeongjin, himself a Vietnam veteran who was deployed with the South Korean Tiger Division in 1972.

“Since South Korea and Vietnam established diplomatic relations, Vietnam has adopted the attitude that we should close the door on the past and move toward the future, and the two sides have been involved in various forms of exchange,” Myeongjin said.

“But now, 25 years after diplomatic relations were established, historical issues are surfacing between the two sides,” he continued.

During a Memorial Day ceremony on June 6, President Moon Jae-in declared that the “national economy survived thanks to the dedication and sacrifice of Vietnam veterans.” His remarks prompted the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry to release an official statement on June 12 requesting Seoul to “refrain from statements and actions that hurt the Vietnamese people and have a negative impact on friendship and cooperation between the two countries.”

The Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation and other groups noted that various truth and reconciliation commissions had been established in the past to investigate anti-democratic and anti-human rights incidents that occurred under past democratic governments, colonial rule, and dictatorships.

They urged the Moon Jae-in administration to also hold a state-level investigation of the massacres of Vietnamese civilians by South Korean troops before it is too late.

By Hwang Keum-bi, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]