Senior US Official to Participate in Joint Investigation of Nokunri Massacre

A senior US official is to visit South Korea to discuss Seoul's participation in a joint investigation of the alleged massacre of civilians by US troops during the Korean War, officials said Friday.
The visit of Stanley Roth, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, was announced as Seoul launched its first official field investigation into an alleged massacre at the village of Nokunri.

'Roth is due here in the very near future,' Yun Byung-Se, deputy director general of the South's foreign ministry, said.

He did not give the exact date, saying Seoul and Washington were still discussing the visit. But Yonhap News Agency said Roth would come to Seoul next week.

The US official's visit follows South Korea's proposal for Seoul and Washington to form a joint team to investigate allegations that US troops machine-gunned civilians during the early Korea War.

Roth and Lee Hong-Koo, South Korean ambassador to the United States, held talks in Washington Tuesday on the proposed joint investigation. Washington has promised full cooperation in the probe.

On Friday, South Korean Foreign Minister Hong Soon-Young and Stephen Bosworth, US envoy to Seoul, met to discuss the prickly issue of alleged US atrocities in the 1950-53 Korean conflict, officials said.

US veterans of the Korean War and survivors said 100 to 200, perhaps 'hundreds' of, South Korean civilians had been massacred in July 1950 in the hamlet of Nokunri, southeast of Seoul.

They claim American soldiers opened fire on the civilians who were fleeing advancing North Korean communist troops, as they believed North Korean agents were disguised as civilian refugees.

Seoul on Thursday sent an inter-ministerial task force to the area to launch an on-site survey into the claims and to interview survivors.

'While collecting statements from the residents, the survey team explained to them that it would take quite some time to shed light on the incident,' a government official was quoted as saying by the Korea Times.

The United States and its ally South Korea fought North Korea and its Chinese backers during the 1950s conflict that erupted when communist North Korea launched a surprise attack on the South in June 1950.

Meanwhile, there were a flurry of further claims of alleged US atrocities similar to that claimed by survivors of a shootout at Nokunri, details of which emerged last week.

News reports have quoted villagers in several areas of the South as saying hundreds of civilians died in alleged attacks by US troops or aircraft during the war. The claims have not been substantiated.