US Journalist Who Reported on the 'Nogeunri Incident' Passes Away

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A journalist who led the American AP news team that revealed the truth about the No Gun Ri civilian massacre by U.S. troops during the Korean War has passed away.

Foreign media including AP reported on the 21st (local time) that J. Robert Fort died at the age of 68. His younger sister said that Fort had been undergoing cancer treatment for over seven years and passed away on the 17th in Lansing, the capital of Michigan, USA.

J. Robert Port, who led the AP news team covering the 'No Gun Ri Incident'
Photo by AP/ Yonhap News Archive

Before joining AP, Fort worked for 12 years as a team leader and other roles at the daily newspaper St. Petersburg Times in Florida. He also served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism for 11 years, teaching investigative techniques.

The No Gun Ri incident was a civilian massacre that occurred from July 25 to 29, 1950, in the No Gun Ri area of Hwanggan-myeon, Yeongdong-gun, Chungbuk, during the Korean War. Allied U.S. soldiers gathered residents and opened fire, killing or injuring more than 200 people.

In 1999, AP, composed of Choi Sang-hoon, Charles Henry, and Martha Mendoza, published a special report exposing the No Gun Ri incident. The article sparked major controversy both inside and outside the United States and won the Pulitzer Prize the following year.

In 2001, the U.S. military acknowledged it as a regrettable incident that occurred during the war. Then-President Bill Clinton also issued a statement of regret, but there was no apology or compensation for the victims.

Subsequently, the South Korean government confirmed the victims as 150 dead, 13 missing, and 63 with aftereffects through a joint Korea-U.S. investigation and family reports. Seventeen bereaved families of the victims expressed "deep regret" over the Supreme Court's dismissal of their damages claim lawsuit against the state and urged the government and National Assembly to take the lead in resolving past issues.

After losing in the first and second trials, they were defeated again by the Supreme Court in July 2022. On that day, the No Gun Ri Incident Victims' Families Association and the No Gun Ri International Peace Foundation issued a statement saying, "The victims of the No Gun Ri incident had hoped that the Supreme Court would respond to their urgent demands with a broader legal interpretation, but it is regrettable that this ruling fell far short of that."

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