AFP published this brief note about a court victory in South Korea.
A South Korean court has ordered two US firms who manufactured Agent Orange to compensate thousands of South Korean Vietnam War veterans and their families.
Dow Chemical and Monsanto were ordered to pay compensation to 6,800 people in the first ruling in favor of sufferers from the effects of the defoliant used by US forces during the war, court officials said.
“The plaintiffs will get compensation varying from six million won (6,200 dollars) to 46 million won each,” Seoul High Court senior judge Choi Byung-Deok told AFP.
Another official said that the total amount of damages and the proportion to be paid by each firm was unclear.
“It is hard to sum up the total amount in compensation because the damages vary case by case among the plaintiffs,” the official said.
Three separate damages suits were filed against the two US firms on behalf of some 20,615 South Korean war veterans and their families. Two were upheld by the court while one case was dismissed.
South Korea sent some 300,000 troops to fight alongside the United States and southern Vietnamese forces during the 1965-1973 war.
