A South Korean court on Thursday ordered two United States 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 around 6 800 people in the first ruling in favour 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) to 46-million won each,” Seoul High Court senior judge Choi Byung-Deok told Agence France-Presse. Total compensation would reach around 60-billion won ($61-million), Yonhap news agency said.
Three separate damages suits were filed against the two US firms on behalf of about 20 615 South Korean war veterans and their families. Two were upheld by the court while one case was dismissed.
South Korea sent about 300 000 troops to fight alongside the United States and southern Vietnamese forces during the 1965-1973 war.
The court ruled that the firms produced stronger dioxins than necessary due to design flaws.
”The defoliants manufactured by the accused contained dioxins in excess of the permitted standard due to product design flaws,” the ruling said.
It said the dioxins triggered 11 medical conditions, including cancers such as lymphoma.
The court said there ”is an epidemiological correlation between the defoliant and the diseases” that the war veterans were suffering.
In the one case thrown out by the court, plaintiffs failed to establish a link between medical problems and the toxins, the ruling said.
It was the first ruling in favour of Agent Orange plaintiffs in South Korea.
In the United States, chemical companies paid $180-million into a fund for US veterans following a lawsuit in 1984. But the companies did not admit wrongdoing.
Last year a US court dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of millions of Vietnamese which accused US chemical firms including Monsanto and Dow of crimes against humanity.
An appeal has been lodged against the dismissal.
Between 1961 and 1971, the US army dropped more than 100 000 tonnes of toxic chemicals on Vietnam, according to the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange. The group says between 2,1 and 4,8-million Vietnamese were exposed.
Named after the coloured stripes on its containers, Agent Orange was used to destroy the vegetation used effectively by Vietnamese communist forces for cover and food. – AFP
