NIS forfeits appeal of ruling on disclosure of documents on civilian massacre in Vietnam War

The National Intelligence Service (NIS)

Korean Central Intelligence Agency established list of related documents for long-term storage

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) recently decided to give up appealing a court ruling ordering it to disclose information related to civilian massacres during the Vietnam War. Observers are now calling on the NIS to immediately release the related documents.

According to a Dec. 23 investigation by the Hankyoreh, the NIS did not submit its appeal to Seoul High Court’s 7th administrative division (under judge Kim Woo-jin) by the Dec. 20 deadline. Once an information disclosure revocation has been upheld, the institution in question must conduct a review on whether to disclose the information and is barred from refusing to disclose it on the same grounds as before. With institutions often losing subsequent administrative lawsuits when they attempt to keep the information classified on different grounds, the majority have ultimately opted to disclose it.

The lawsuit in question was initiated after it came to light during a trial last July that examination protocols for the questioning of South Korean troops implicated in the civilian massacre at Phong Nhi/Phong Hat are currently archived at the NIS. After attorney Im Jae-seong of the law firm Haemaru failed an administrative suit against the NIS, it emerged that the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (predecessor of the NIS) established a list of related documents while capturing microfilm records for the long-term storage of materials from the questioning of implicated individuals on Aug. 14, 1972.

Survivors of a civilian massacre by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War attend the Citizens’ Peace Court for revealing the truth behind the massacre in Seoul on Apr. 22. (Park Jong-shik, staff photographer)

The courts in the first and second trial both ruled that the NIS should disclose its list of documents. In the past, the NIS has maintained that disclosing the details would be improper, citing “potential negative diplomatic repercussions.” But the court in the second trial concluded that the NIS’s claims of a negative diplomatic impact represented a “possibility without concrete basis” and “a general inference.”

If the list of documents is revealed, it would be the South Korean government’s first-ever official admission of questioning in connection with the Phong Nhi massacre. It is also expected to add momentum to legal action to investigate massacres of Vietnamese civilians and demand compensation from the state.

By Ko Han-sol, staff reporter

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