South Korea must compensate survivor of Vietnam War massacre: NPR

Incense sticks are placed on a monument honoring the victims of the massacre in Vietnam.

Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP via Getty Images

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Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP via Getty Images

Incense sticks are placed on a monument honoring the victims of the massacre in Vietnam.

Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP via Getty Images

SEOUL — A South Korean court has ordered the government to compensate the survivor of a massacre committed by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War. It is the first time that a court has held the Southern government responsible for such atrocities.

Nguyen Thi Thanh was 7 years old in 1968 when she said South Korean marines killed five members of her family and shot her in the stomach.

According to US military documents and survivors, marines killed more than 70 civilians and wounded 20 in two villages in Quang Nam province.

This happened weeks before the My Lai massacre by US troops further south.

Nguyen Thi Thanh sued the South Korean government in 2020 for nearly $24,000. The court rejected the government’s argument that the Viet Cong guerrillas were intermingled with the local population.

South Korea has sent more than 300,000 troops to fight in Vietnam, the largest contingent of any US allies.

This originally appeared in NPR’s Newscast.