Supreme Court Orders "NIS to Disclose Information on Civilian Massacres in Vietnam War"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has ruled that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) must disclose information regarding the massacre of civilians by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War.

On the 26th, the Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dongwon) confirmed the lower court's ruling in favor of the plaintiff in the appeal case filed by lawyer Lim Jaesung of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) against the NIS, seeking to nullify the refusal to disclose information.

Lawyer Lim and other Minbyun lawyers filed a lawsuit against the NIS in 2017, demanding the disclosure of documents from the Central Intelligence Agency (the predecessor of the NIS) containing investigation details about the massacre of civilians carried out by South Korean troops in February 1968 in the Vietnamese villages of 'Phong Nhi' and 'Phong Nut.'

However, the NIS refused, citing concerns that disclosing the documents could harm significant national interests and infringe on the privacy of those involved in the investigation. The documents requested by Minbyun are known to be lists of interrogation records of three Vietnam War veterans related to the massacre, held by the Central Intelligence Agency.

In response to Lawyer Lim's request, the first and second trial courts ruled that the documents should be disclosed except for certain personal information. The courts stated, "Information such as the birthdates of the investigated individuals falls under non-disclosable information, but the remaining parts are not subject to non-disclosure under the Information Disclosure Act. The remaining parts alone are meaningful as historical materials that can confirm whether the South Korean government investigated those involved in the Phong Nhi incident, and therefore are recognized as worthy of disclosure."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.