S.K., U.S. acknowledge Nogunri killings

In a joint statement, Korea and the United States made public Friday that the Nogunri case was an incident in which a number of South Korean civilians were killed or injured by retreating U.S. soldiers.

Accordingly, U.S. President Bill Clinton extended regret over the incident, and the U.S. government decided to build a memorial and establish a scholarship fund to honor the Nogunri victims and family members.

In particular, immediately after the release of the joint statement, President Clinton telephoned President Kim Dae-Jung, expressing regret over the Nogunri incident.

Ahn Byoung-Woo, policy coordination director of the Prime Minister' Office and chief of the Nogunri countermeasures committee, held a press conference and announced the result of the investigation into the mass killing case.

In the announcement, the two governments concluded that the U.S. troops in a defensive battle position during the initial phase of the Korean War killed or injured an unknown number of South Korean civilians around Nogunri in the last week of July 1950.