SOUTH KOREANS WELCOME
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korean demonstrators held a two-hour rally Friday and welcomed a U.S. promise to investigate allegations American forces killed several hundred refugees with machine-gun fire at the start of the Korean War.
"We throw up
both of our hands to welcome the U.S. decision," said Chung Eun-yong, spokesman
for a group of aging South Koreans who say they survived the alleged killings
at Nogun-ri in July 1950.
During a peaceful two-hour rally in front of
the U.S. 8th Army headquarters in Seoul, dozens of activists praised
Washington’s decision to formally review the Nogun-ri case. But they also demanded punishment for those
responsible and compensation for the victims’ relatives. "All the South Korean people are angry.
The survivors’
claims had been dismissed by both the
According to
the survivors, 300 people were killed in the mass shooting at a railroad bridge
after 100 died in an air attack during the early weeks of the Korean War. Ex-GIs spoke of anywhere from 100 to
"hundreds" dead. The AP also found
once-classified documents showing that
The report has
drawn widespread media and public attention in
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