A Interview with Kim Ki Tae

Koh Kyoung Tae/ reporter of The Hankyoreh21
Hwang Sang Cheol/ reporter of The Hankyoreh21
Translated Yoon Yong Ah

Before and after we visited Vietnam, we met Kim several times. He said that he felt guilty about having shot women, childnren and the old people in Phuoc Binh. We shared with him the results of our survey in Phuoc Binh. He agreed that Phuoc Binh is the very village but he claimed he didn't know about the rape of Le Thi Ngoc by his men. He also added that he don't have to apologize about the massacre of the bomb pit. He alleged, "because I had confirmation that they were Viet Cong guerrillas, I ordered their killing." Otherwise he considered the idea of compensation positively.

Q: Should you have killed unarmed Vietnamese youth in the bomb pit?
A: Two days before, we had been attacked by the Viet Cong from the direction of the mountain where we found them hidden in a cave. Even though we couldn't talk to them, we were confirmed that they were guerrillas. All of them were men. The guns...we probably would have failed to find their guns hidden by them in the cave. Anyway they could have been guerrillas. When we took them away, we were shot at by the Viet Cong in the mountain."

Q: Did anybody of your company suggest setting them free?
A: No. All my men complained about not killing them earlier. At first, I had intended to let them live, but because of the sudden order I couldn't help ordering to kill them. Because we were in the region controlled by the Viet Cong, we couldn't leave them with a few soldiers to watch there.

Q: Have you ever imagine that they were just hiding to escape from the sweeping-off by Korean soldiers?
A: Well, it was usual that only women and children stayed in the village. Viet Cong were in the mountain during the day and returned to the village only during the night.

Q: Were you sure that they were all the Viet Cong?
A: Well, because they were not interrogated in the camp, I couldn't be positive. But I think that they were all the Viet Cong or the supporters of the Viet Cong.

Q: Did you report the bomb pit killings to Battalion headquarters?
A: No, I didn't.

Q: You said to have swept off some villages at the second day of your operation. Didn't you report them?
A: No. I received the call from the battalion commander about the fires. I reported we set fire to a pile of straw.

Q: Don't you think that the way to carry the operation was cruel?
A: The villagers should have moved to the region controlled by the South Vietnamese government. They were in a region governed completely by the North Vietnamese army. We went there to sweep off the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army.

Q: I can understand your opinion but...
A: In rages against the Viet Cong, we swept off Vietnamese villages. We couldn't tell civilians from the Viet Cong in the region governed by the enemies. I think that all operations of the Vietnam War were same. If our soldiers were wounded by the Viet Cong, we would shoot everyone.

Q: Does it seem that there were many innocent civilians among people who killed by the soldiers?
A: Sure. During the Korean War, it was possible that so many people who wanted to escape, had to stay under the control of the North Korean government because of their economic difficulties.

Q: After you finished the operation, have you heard that you were considered cruel?
A: We had no time to think about it. At that time, we just had a mission to prevent all our soldiers from being killed.

Q: You said that although an officer commanded his men not to kill people, soldiers killed people later. Wasn't that disobedience to an order?
A: Because we were in the middle of an operation and we were chasing the Viet Cong...I think that we could control but we couldn't prevent all killings that broke out behind our back. We couldn't follow every man to control him. Our men were upset by the Viet Cong at that time, so we couldn't control them perfectly. I think most of killings broke out behind officers' backs. I don't think the officers neglected their duties. Because the operation regions were so broad and each man was spread so widely during the operations, the officer couldn't prevent every soldier from killing civilian Vietnamese. It also happened during a short period of time.

Q: Did you usually gather villagers once you entered a village?
A: Yes. Because we needed to separate Viet Cong suspects from innocent people, we did. It was dangerous to survey the village without gathering the people in one place. During our survey, we were attacked with hand grenades by the Viet Cong. We gathered villagers and made them recognize that if you harmed Korean soldiers, your family will be killed by us.

Q: How did you treat Viet Cong suspects?
A: We took the only young men out of the village. We thought all young men were putative Viet Cong. After our operation we handed them over a camp. Otherwise, if we didn't finish the operation quickly or if our soldiers were wounded, all of them would be killed.

Q: Killings by Korean soldiers were children, women, and the old people.
A: Young Vietnamese men had already escaped from the village. Because women, children, and the old people thought Korean soldiers won't kill them, they decided to stay in the village. But they were harmed more than the men were.

Q: What did you think when your men took away the gathered people and killed them?
A: I was the captain. I could not help but order them to shot the bodies again to be sure. I didn't feel that I killed innocent people at that time. Now, I can agree that it was a murder of innocent people.

Q: I heard that Korean soldiers cut noses and ears off dead people.
A: I saw it too. One of my company dug out eyes of dead people and put them in a alcohol bottle. I asked him why he did so. He replied that he would carry them as mementos to Korea.

Q: People say that Korean soldiers treated Vietnamese cruelly because they are a different ethnic group.
A: That's right. We failed to communicate with them and couldn't discriminate between innocent people and the Viet Cong. Many Vietnamese people were badly injured, because of the difficulties in communication. At the beginning of the ¿ë¾È plan, even South Vietnamese officers were killed by us. During fighting, two Vietnamese men in military uniforms of South Vietnam tried to run away to the enemy side. They said something to me, but I couldn't understand at all. We shot them. A South Vietnamese captain came to us and told us the soldiers who we were fighting were not the Viet Cong but South Vietnamese regulars.

Q: Did you carry out operations with an official interpreter?
A: We usually didn't like to go out with the interpreter. Some interpreters told the Viet Cong our plan of operations. They also could report the civilian killings by us to South Vietnamese government and their regular armies. Because I didn't want such problems, I didn't like to carry out operations with Vietnamese interpreters. I think that because we were without an interpreter, we shot the South Vietnamese officers.

Q: Now do you feel guilty about the killings?
A: Yes. I think I ordered to kill and killed people for myself. I regret that I killed too many people in Vietnam. Actually my men shot them, but I think it's the same thing as me killing them. Recalling the past, I feel I'm guilty.

Q: What do you do if the Vietnam War broke out again?
A: I'll demonstrate against Korean's entry into the war.

Q: Last year, Korea sent soldiers to East Timor as part of a United Nations peace keeping force. What do you think about that?
A: I agree that we had no another choice because United Nations requested it. If I were in charge of it, I would have refused to send the soldiers to East Timor. Even though they are peace keeping force, they can't help but fight back if a rebel army attacks them. It could cause the killing of innocent people.

Q: is campaigning for a donation movement to apologize for our wrong doings. Civilian movement groups also try to find out what the truth is.
A: We have to do that. Probably the Vietnamese victims and survivors bear hatred towards us but someday they'll forgive us. I really regret what we did to the Vietnamese people. We should apologize to them and seek their forgiveness. We should also give financial support to them. I think all those movements are beautiful.

Q: What do you think about the compensation by the Korean government for Vietnam?
A: I agree. If Vietnam were richer than Korea, we would not have to compensate. Even though they won the Vietnam War, they still fall behind us economically. Korean government's compensation will help to form a warm relationship between our two countries. The soldiers who carried out the operations in Vietnamese villages can visit there again and can apologize to the villagers. They can also give support to Vietnam. We should do everything to lessen even by one hundredth the Vietnamese hatred towards Korean.

Q: The Vietnamese government always says their official attitude about the past is to cover up the past, but they already have finished all surveys of civilian killings by Korean soldiers. What do you think about the Vietnamese government?
A: Even if the South Vietnamese government still existed or it united Vietnam, the Vietnamese people would have surveyed all of the war. During the Vietnam War, they asked American forces to pay charges for using their airports. The Vietnamese people have difficulty economically now, but they have high self-esteem and have their own distinct racial characteristics.