A delegation from the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin (VAVA), led by Vice Chairman Do Xuan Dien, visited the RoK on April 9, to gain insights into its experiences in conducting lawsuits against the US chemical companies.

“The war has gone. We are willing to put the past aside to befriend people from all countries, even if they used to oppose us in the past. We are accelerating the process of conducting lawsuits against the AO/dioxin producers, and we need to learn from the RoK experiences in this regard,” Dien said in an interview with the Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Seoul.

Seo Cheoul Jae, Vice President of the AO-Connected Disabled Veterans of the RoK, said his association has opened representative offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to share the RoK context with the Vietnamese AO/dioxin victims.

The RoK sent around 320,000 troops to Vietnam during the American war and it is estimated that nearly half of them, became victims of toxic chemicals sprayed by their own side. RoK veterans exposed to Agent Orange have been stricken amongst others with the diseases of respiratory and prostate cancer, spina bifida and leukaemia.

In 2006, the RoK Supreme Court ordered US$69 million in compensation for 6,800 RoK victims and their families by US Agent Orange/dioxin manufacturers.