S. Korean, U.S. Marines conduct joint landing drill South Korean Marines land on the coast of Pohang, 273 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Sept. 2, 2024, during the annual South Korea-U.S. Ssang Yong amphibious landing exercise that began on Aug. 26. (Yonhap)
Opposition leader visits Marine unit Lee Jae-myung (C), leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, inspects a barracks during a visit to a unit of the Marine Corps in Gimpo, west of Seoul, on Jan. 24, 2024. (Yonhap)
Ex-top Marine investigator rejects military prosecution’s inquiry Col. Park Jung-hun, a former chief of the Marine Corps’ investigation unit, meets the press in front of the military prosecution’s office in Seoul on Aug. 11, 2023, refusing to undergo the military prosecution’s questioning over his alleged insubordination related to an internal probe into last month’s tragic death of a young soldier. (Yonhap)
It is interesting that the ROK government is using the same argument that the Japanese have been using to deny paying reparations to individual Koreans for World War II era atrocities, that a post-war agreement between the ROK, the US and Vietnam nullified these claims:
Nguyen Thi Thanh expresses her feelings through a video chat after the Central District Court orders the Korean government to pay approximately 3 million won and losses incurred by the delay to her, Tuesday. Newsis
A district court has ruled in favor of a Vietnamese national who filed a lawsuit against the Korean government for the 1968 atrocities committed by Korean troops against Vietnamese civilians during the Vietnam War.
It is the first time that a Korean court ruled against the Korean government regarding the atrocities committed by the ROK Marine Corps.
On Tuesday, the Central District Court ordered the Korean government to pay approximately 3 million won and losses incurred by the delay.
“(Then) the soldiers of the 2nd Korean Marine Brigade entered the plaintiff’s house and threatened the family members at gunpoint to force them outside. And then they fired at them. The court acknowledges that the family members of the plaintiff were killed on the spot and the plaintiff was seriously wounded as a consequence,” the ruling reads. “This is obviously illegal.”
The court denied the Korean government’s claim that a Vietnamese national cannot file a lawsuit against the Korean government as stated in the military accord signed among Korea, the United States and Vietnam, saying that the agreement signed by military authorities and government institutions itself didn’t make Vietnamese civilians ineligible to seek compensation from the Korean government.
You can read more at the link, but considering what is alleged to have happened the compensation is very low:
Nguyen Thi Thanh, 62, filed a compensation suit against the Korean government in 2020. As a victim of a wartime massacre by Korean marines, she has sought an apology from the Korean government along with 3,000,100 won ($2393) in compensation ― the minimum amount required for a court ruling.
The troops in question were from the 2nd Marine Division, also known as Blue Dragon Division. They allegedly killed 74 unarmed civilians in the villages of Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat of Qu?ng Nam Province in Vietnam, where Nguyen lived, on Feb. 12, 1968.
“Korean soldiers shouted and threatened families with grenades to come outside,” Nguyen said at the Seoul Central District Court, last August. She is the first Vietnamese to testify about the atrocities before a Korean court.
Philippine Marine Corps chief Alvin Parreno (C) listens to a South Korean military officer as he visits the South Korean Marine Corps’ 1st Division in the southeastern city of Pohang on Nov. 13, 2018, to inspect major military equipment, including amphibious assault landing vehicles, in this photo released by the Marine Corps Command. (Yonhap)
Lt. Gen. Jun Jin-goo, commander of South Korea’s Marine Corps, is conferred the U.S. Legion of Merit by his American counterpart Robert B. Neller in Washington on Sept. 6, 2018, in this photo from Jun’s office. The Legion of Merit is the highest medal the U.S. armed forces awards to foreign military officials to recognize their contributions to strengthening the alliance with the U.S. (Yonhap)
