Another My Lai?

O, the impregnable Koreans...

The Koreans are marching after us.

We are hiding while they attack us.

The sound, that sound of the mighty

Koreans.

--Poem attributed to a Communist soldier killed in Viet Nam.

Since they arrived in South Viet Nam seven years ago, South Korean troops have gained a reputation as the toughest and meanest of the allied forces. Off duty, they arm-wrestle and break layers of bricks with a single karate-like chop. In battle they are fierce, frightening the peasants by the zeal with which they patrol their zones of operation, which are mainly in the central coastal region and include vital sections of Highways 1,19 and 21. It is an area that is considered "hostile"; much of it continues to be controlled by the Viet Cong. Even at this late date, the overextended South Vietnamese badly need the combat support of the ROK forces.*

As with other foreign troops, particularly the Americans, the Koreans' lack of understanding of local customs has contributed to suspicious and mistrustful relations with the Vietnamese. Rumors abound of incidents in which Korean soldiers brutalized the civilians --for example, by wiping out entire hamlets in retaliation for losing a single soldier to a Viet Cong sniper. One of the few incidents to be confirmed was in October 1969, when eyewitnesses said that they saw uniformed Koreans enter a temple in Phan Rang and murder four Buddhist monks. The South Vietnamese government absolved the Koreans, saying that a captured Communist soldier had confessed that he and some comrades had dressed in Korean uniforms and killed the monks.

Last week new charges of Korean atrocities were reviewed. A Lower House Deputy, Nguyen Cong Hoang, one of the representatives of Phu Yen province, had prompted an official investigation several weeks ago into a My Lai-type massacre that reportedly occurred in his province on July 31. On that day, troops of the First Battalion of the "Tiger" Division's 26th Regiment were conducting a mopping-up operation. As the troops passed near Phu Long hamlet, they were fired upon by small arms. A platoon leader and a sergeant were killed. The Koreans dug in and, with the approval of the district chief, called for artillery and gunship support. When most of the houses in the hamlet had been demolished, the troops entered and "secured" the area. Among the dead: 21 civilians.

Passionate Stories. Beyond those simple facts, the events at Phu Long are disputed. The Koreans say that the civilians were killed in the artillery fire. But the villagers contend that they survived the battle by hiding in bunkers. After it was over, they say, Korean soldiers came into the village and murdered the 21 people. Tom Fox of TIME'S Saigon bureau visited the province last week. "When they gather to tell their story, they speak with passion," he cabled. "Each fights to let a visitor hear his or her own story. Tell him everything!' someone says. 'Let him know exactly what happened,' adds another. Tears come to the eyes of the women as they speak."

"The soldiers called Ba Truoc to come out of her hut," a twelve-year-old girl told Fox. "She came out slowly with her baby in her arms. She stood in front of the hut, and they shot them dead." Then a woman told how six Korean soldiers took the prettiest girl in the hamlet, 16-year-old Nguyen Thi Sang, and forced her behind a small hut, where they raped her as she screamed. Then they shot and killed her.

Another woman recalled that she was leaving the village with her elderly mother. The soldiers asked the woman where her husband was. She replied that he was in Tuy Hoa, the capital of the province. They let her pass but detained her mother. Minutes later she heard shots ring out. Her mother, along with a group of others, had been killed.

Hamlet officials are reluctant to take sides. But at least one member of the Phu Yen province council privately supports the villagers' charges. "The Koreans overreacted. They got mad, moved in and went after the people," he said. "It's understandable and regrettable. But what does one say?"

A six-man commission of investigators--three from the Saigon government and three Koreans--has completed a report on the charges. Although the report has not been officially released, its contents have become known in Saigon. It acknowledges the deaths of the civilians but finds insufficient evidence that they were executed. Said Lieut. Colonel Chung Yuk Jin, press spokesman for the Korean command: "If there were villagers killed in the hamlet, they were killed by artillery, stray bullets or the gunships--not by Korean troops." Why would the survivors lie about the incident? "This hamlet has been controlled by the Communists for more than 20 years," argued Chung. "All the relatives and families belong to or are sympathetic to the Viet Cong." Chung's assertion is one hauntingly familiar to American soldiers: how to tell the difference between the Viet Cong and the people.

*Nevertheless, last week the Seoul government announced that its 37,200 troops in Viet Nam --now the largest foreign force in the country despite a reduction of 11,000 since last December --would be completely withdrawn between December of this year and May 1973. The move, prompted by the U.S. pullout and the Vietnamization of the ground fighting, should enhance South Korea's position in current diplomatic efforts to bring about an accommodation with North Korea.

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