In a retrial earlier this month, a Seoul appellate court ruled against South Korea’s Vietnam War veterans demanding compensation for their exposure to defoliant. Ruling in favor of two U.S. chemical manufacturers, the court did not recognize epidemiological correlations between Agent Orange and diseases such as lymphoma suffered by the plaintiffs numbering more than 5,000.

In 2006, the Seoul High Court ordered the two firms to pay compensation ranging from 6 million won ($5,400) to 46 million won to the veterans for their physical suffering caused by the defoliant. The Supreme Court, however, last year reversed the landmark ruling and sent the case back for review.

The elderly plaintiffs, who accepted the Nov. 14 ruling with a sense of resignation, are part of about 320,000 soldiers South Korea dispatched to Vietnam to fight alongside the U.S. and its allies against communist forces in the 1960s and 70s. During the war, a large amount of defoliant was dropped to deny Viet Cong troops shelter in jungle areas. Advocacy groups here estimate the number of South Korean soldiers victimized by the toxic chemical agent at around 150,000.

Furthermore, more than 4,600 South Korean servicemen were killed and nearly 11,000 others were wounded during the war, which now seems to have been almost obliterated from the memory of the public here.

Despite different views of South Korea’s participation in the Vietnam War, veterans and bereaved family members of deceased soldiers should be taken care of in ways that match their devotion and sacrifice.

As we draw to the end of the 50th year since the first South Korean military unit landed in Vietnam, our thoughts also need to go to the negative legacies the war has left between the two countries.

Since restoring diplomatic relations in 1992, the two nations have expanded ties rapidly across all sectors with many Vietnamese women having come here to start a family with their South Korean spouses. Their deepening relations are epitomized in the description of South Korea and Vietnam as “twin countries” or “countries of in-laws.”

It may be somewhat surprising that the unfortunate history has posed no obstacle to the two nations having advanced their ties so far.

Euphemistically speaking, this was possible because they have been forward-looking, unbound by negative legacies from the past. It may be more accurate, however, to say that Hanoi’s strategic ― and wise ― choice not to push historical matters too far has enabled its relations with Seoul to develop smoothly.

During their previous visits to Vietnam, South Korean leaders have certainly expressed sincere regret over the suffering some South Korean soldiers inflicted on Vietnamese civilians. Over the past decades, South Korean aid organizations and companies have also implemented various programs to help Vietnamese villagers in an active manner that seems to partly reflect their sense of historical liability.

In the early 2000s, an association of Vietnam War veterans here began trying to help some grandchildren of “Lai Dai Hans” born between South Korean fathers and Vietnamese mothers during the war. Vietnamese veterans were willing to work with it. This experience has led war veterans from the two countries to expand their cooperation, including support for former Vietnamese soldiers victimized by defoliant and their family members.

These efforts have contributed to enhancing the friendly ties between South Korea and Vietnam. But it may require more work to settle their historical legacies in a more concrete way based on specific cases, if they can maximize the potential of bilateral partnership and remain truly amicable to each other for decades to come.

To this end, Seoul needs to have the courage and sincerity to look squarely into whatever atrocities allegedly were committed by its soldiers against innocent Vietnamese civilians. It may be embarrassing and painful to shed light on ― and admit to ― the disgraceful past that has remained in oblivion. But historical facts are not something that can be obliterated forever.

Proactive moves to uncover the truth and taking due steps that correspond to it will enhance, not harm, our moral integrity. By setting this example, South Korea could hopefully strengthen its call on Japan to face up to its pre-1945 wartime atrocities and apologize for victims, including Korean women forced into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers.

Vietnam has not made a formal demand for an apology from South Korea. But this does not mean its people have forgotten the atrocities that are said to have been committed by South Korean troops. Visitors to villages in central Vietnam, where South Korean forces mainly operated during the war, can see monuments in memory of the tragic incidents that still stand there.

In the coming years when such incidents will mark their 50th anniversary, calls for Seoul’s acknowledgment and apology may mount. South Korea should be willing and prepared to do so, if testimonies from witnesses are confirmed. This would build a bridge of genuine sisterhood between the two nations, which share a similar modern history of having been colonized, divided and drawn into a fratricidal conflict.

By Kim Kyung-ho 

Kim Kyung-ho is an editorial writer for The Korea Herald. He can be reached at khkim@heraldcorp.com. ― Ed.