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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060126/
wl_asia_afp/skoreauscourtdamages_060126082834
AFP/File Photo: South Korean Vietnam War veterans demand compensation
for their exposure to the Agent Orange defoliant...
A South Korean court has ordered two US firms who manufactured
Agent Orange to compensate thousands of South Korean Vietnam War
veterans and their families.
Dow Chemical and Monsanto were ordered to pay compensation to
6,800 people in the first ruling in favor of sufferers from the
effects of the defoliant used by US forces during the war, court
officials said.
"The plaintiffs will get compensation varying from six million
won (6,200 dollars) to 46 million won each," Seoul High Court
senior judge Choi Byung-Deok told AFP.
Another official said that the total amount of damages and the
proportion to be paid by each firm was unclear.
"It is hard to sum up the total amount in compensation because
the damages vary case by case among the plaintiffs," the
official said.
Three separate damages suits were filed against the two US firms
on behalf of some 20,615 South Korean war veterans and their families.
Two were upheld by the court while one case was dismissed.
South Korea sent some 300,000 troops to fight alongside the United
States and southern Vietnamese forces during the 1965-1973 war.
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