Veterans body proposes expanded compensation for defoliant victims
About 1,890 people have so far been reported to be victims of defoliants sprayed along the Demilitarized Zone in the late 1960s, according to a local group of veterans.
Source : Korea Herald
About 1,890 people have so far been reported to be victims of defoliants sprayed along the Demilitarized Zone in the late 1960s, according to a local group of veterans.
"We have registered 1,890 cases involving defoliant victims, which also includes some 150 second-generation victims and family members of deceased victims," the Korean Disabled Veterans Association of Agent Orange said yesterday.
Included in the total are some 400 civilians, association officials said.
The association, made up mostly of defoliant victims, and the Pan-national Committee to Cope with Defoliant-related Damage, an umbrella group of six civic organizations, also said they would push to have the civilian victims included in a government compensation program, which is to go into effect in July.
The National Assembly recently revised a law to expand medical and financial support for both soldiers and civilians suffering the ill effects of exposure to Agent Orange, a U.S.-made defoliant used along Korea's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from March, 1968 to July, 1970.
The measure came in the wake of Washington and Seoul's admission last November that U.S. Forces Korea mobilized South Korean Army soldiers to spray Agent Orange and two other defoliants, Agent Blue and Monuron, in areas south of the DMZ in 1968 and 1969.
Affected veterans are also pushing to obtain compensation for victims who began showing symptoms of exposure in 1970-1975, as the defoliants are thought to have residual effects lasting up to three decades after their use.
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