Probe into Nogun-ri incident drags on

The United States has reportedly completed a paper on its fact-finding regarding the Nogun-ri incident, in which American soldiers allegedly killed many Korean civilians at the beginning of the Korean War, but the Seoul and Washington governments are having difficulty overcoming their differences on how to address the dispute.

Michael Choi, attorney for of the Korean plaintiffs in the suit against the United States, told a group of Korean journalists in Washington Thursday that the U.S. Army fact-finding mission prepared a 1,100-page report on the incident and distributed it among U.S. Congressmen and some agencies of the Korean and U.S. governments.

The American report, according to Choi, is neither truthful nor apologetic enough to make it acceptable to Koreans and thus is likely to arouse greater anti-American sentiment among Koreans when it is made public. The lawyer insisted that a document on the Korean War prepared by a chief war historian with the U.S. Department of the Army, led him to conclude that the killings at Nogun-ri were a clear case of systematic massacre.

Korea and the United States will hold talks on Dec. 6 in Seoul on the results of their investigations into the incident. It is uncertain if the two sides will be able agree on and jointly publish a final fact-finding report on Dec. 15 as scheduled.

Han Ki-Heung eligius@donga.com