Seoul: A court of appeals on Friday upheld a lower court's ruling in favor of a Vietnamese national seeking compensation from South Korea after losing family members and suffering wounds when South Korean Marines killed dozens of civilians during the Vietnam War.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the appellate division of the Seoul Central District Court made the ruling, ordering the South Korean government to pay 30 million won (US$20,580) and the corresponding delay damages to Nguyen Thi Thanh, a 64-year-old woman. Nguyen claimed she lost family members and was wounded during a massacre of about 70 Vietnamese civilians by South Korean troops in a village in Vietnam's Quang Nam Province in 1968.
The ruling marked the first time a South Korean court has acknowledged the state's liability to compensate victims in South Korean troops' killings of Vietnamese civilians during the war. Following the appellate court ruling, Nguyen expressed her gratitude and asked for attention to other victims in similar cases.
Nguyen filed the damages suit against the South Korean government in 2020, and a Seoul district court ruled in her favor in February 2023.