South Korea and Vietnam – Sentenced to Compensation – Politics

55 years after a massacre in the Vietnam War, the South Korean government is to compensate a Vietnamese plaintiff. A court in Seoul awarded the woman the equivalent of around 22,000 euros on Tuesday, South Korean media reported. It is the first time that a court in South Korea has held the state responsible for the killing of civilians by South Korean soldiers in the Vietnam War and for compensating those victims. The plaintiff survived the alleged atrocities committed by South Korean soldiers in her village of Phong Nhi in 1968. In her lawsuit, she stated that she lost most of her family and sustained gunshot wounds. According to reports, about 70 people died in the village. South Korea deployed around 300,000 troops to support the United States in the Vietnam War.