South Korea Appeals Court Compensation Of Vietnam War Victim

South Korea has appealed a court ruling to compensate a Vietnamese woman who was a victim of South Korean troops' atrocities during the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

This is as the court in Seoul ordered the country to pay 30 million won ($22,730) to Nguyen Thi Thanh in compensation for injuries sustained when she survived a mass killing of civilians by South Korean troops in 1968.

Thanh was just eight years old when South Korean marines swept through her village of Phong Nhi in central Vietnam, killing more than 70 unarmed civilians, including five members of Thanh’s family.

She sustained a gunshot wound to her stomach during the rampage, in which her mother and two siblings died.

The country’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement; “We will fully cooperate with the trial proceedings under continued consultations with related agencies to receive an appellate ruling based on substantial truth."

South Korea’s Defence Minister Lee Jong-Sup responded to the court ruling stating that his ministry was certain there were absolutely no massacres committed.