hankyoreh

South Korean soldiers committed massacres of civilians in the Vietnamese villages of Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat (Hankyoreh file photo)

Another South Korean court has ruled that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) is breaking the law by refusing to release information about the South Korean military’s massacre of civilians during the Vietnam War.

On Jan. 31, Hon. Park Hyeong-sun, a judge with the 11th administrative division of the Seoul Administrative Court, partially ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, asking for the NIS’ decision to be reversed. The lawsuit was argued by a MINBYUN task force responsible for investigating the civilian massacre.

The court said the NIS must produce a list of documents composed following the investigation of First Lieutenant Choe Yeong-eon and two other Korean soldiers who participated in a massacre at the villages of Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat in 1968, during the Vietnam War. The court stipulated, however, that certain information doesn’t have to be released, including the soldiers’ date of birth. This is the third court that has found the NIS’ actions to be illegal.

In August 2017, Im Jae-seong, an attorney with the Haemaru law firm and a member of the MINBYUN task force, filed a freedom of information request with the NIS, asking it to release the documents composed following the investigation of the three soldiers who took part in the massacre. But the NIS refused the request on the ground of concerns about diplomatic ramifications.

Through an administrative lawsuit, the MINBYUN task force managed to determine that the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA, the forerunner of the NIS) had interrogated First Lieutenant Choe Yeong-eon, First Lieutenant Lee Sang-woo, and First Lieutenant Kim Gi-dong, all platoon commanders in the 1st Company, in November 1969 about their involvement in the massacre and then created a list of the interrogation records in August 1972.

After being ordered to release the information in question in the initial trial of the administrative lawsuit and on appeal, the NIS declined to appeal further, ending the case. But the NIS still refused to release the information, this time citing “concerns about leaking personal information.” This prompted the MINBYUN task force to file a lawsuit with the Seoul Administrative Court, again requesting that the NIS’ decision be reversed.

The Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacre was an incident in which soldiers from the 2nd Marine Division (known as the Blue Dragons), which was deployed to the Vietnam War on Feb. 12, 1968, killed 74 civilians in these villages in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam. Choe and the other two veterans were the first to testify that the civilian massacre had been investigated by the KCIA in 1969, disclosing this information to the Hankyoreh 21 in May 2000. But the intelligence authorities have remained silent about the related testimony.

At the time of the investigation, First Lieutenant Choe was an aide at a firing range in a training program at the Marines’ Pohang Amphibious Warfare Base Command; First Lieutenant Lee was a drill instructor at the Marine Corps Education and Training Group in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province; and First Lieutenant Kim was working with a special unit in Pohang for training soldiers bound for Vietnam.

“More than two years have passed since we filed the freedom of information act. Since the courts have repeatedly ruled that it’s illegal to hold back this information, the NIS needs to release it instead of making another appeal, which would just pointlessly drag out this fight,” said Im, the attorney, in a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh.

By Ko Han-sol, staff reporter

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