hankyoreh

Nguyen Thi Anh and Nguyen Thi Thanh, victims of massacres of civilians carried out by Korean troops during the Vietnam War, take part in a people’s tribunal on war crimes by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War held at the Oil Tank Culture Park in Seoul’s Mapo District on April 22, 2018. (Park Jong-sik/The Hankyoreh)

After the South Korean government appealed a court’s decision awarding damages to the survivor of a civilian massacre by Korean troops during the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese government called Seoul’s decision “very regrettable.”

Pham Thu Hang, spokesperson of Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry, said during the regular press conference on Thursday afternoon that the Vietnamese government hopes South Korea will respect the ruling, Reuters reported.

“Vietnam’s policy is to put aside the past and look towards the future but this does not mean that we deny the truth of history,” the spokesperson said.

The Korean government’s decision does not reflect the objective truth, Hang said, adding that Hanoi thinks the South Korean government’s decision to appeal the ruling is “very regrettable.”

On Feb. 7, the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of 63-year-old Nguyen Thi Thanh in a damages lawsuit filed against the Korean government. The court ordered the government to pay the plaintiff around 30 million won in damages, along with damages for the delay. This was the first judgment recognizing the Korean government’s legal liability to victims of the Vietnam War-era massacres.

In her damages lawsuit against the Korean government, Nguyen alleged that she lost her family and suffered serious injuries in a massacre carried out by South Korean troops. She was 8 years old when the Korean Marine Corps’ Blue Dragon Division killed some 70 villagers in Phong Nhị, in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province in February 1968.

The Korean government has appealed the district court’s ruling.

“We will work with the legal system through continuing consultations with related organizations to obtain a judgment on appeal that is grounded in the actual truth,” the Ministry of National Defense said.

“This decision degraded South Korea’s national reputation and eroded trust in the judiciary,” said groups including the Vietnam Veterans Associations Korea and the Korean Disabled Veteran’s Association by Agent-Orange in Vietnam War.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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