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December 9, 2000 

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and South Korean negotiators have reached a ``mutual understanding'' that American soldiers killed South Korean civilian refugees in the early weeks of the Korean War, but they left unresolved the question of how many died, a Clinton administration official said Friday.

The talks, which ended Thursday in Seoul with no publicly announced result, produced agreement from both sides that U.S. soldiers shot at the refugees near the hamlet of No Gun Ri in July 1950, and that there is insufficient evidence to conclude whether the soldiers acted on direct orders from superiors, the official said. The official discussed the matter on condition of anonymity.

The South Koreans had argued there was enough evidence to say the killings were ordered, but the American side prevailed in describing the circumstances at No Gun Ri as chaotic and unclear, the U.S. official said.

As for casualties, the Koreans stuck to their figure of 248 killed, wounded or missing, and the Americans insisted the number is much lower but cannot be determined exactly, the official said.

These results are based on the findings of separate U.S. and South Korean investigations. The U.S. probe found American soldiers did shoot civilian refugees at No Gun Ri but that while there were orders to regard refugees as hostile targets, there were no ``shoot-to-kill'' orders at No Gun Ri.

The agreement reached in Seoul has yet to be approved by Army Secretary Louis Caldera or top-level South Korean government officials. It also does not address the sticky question of whether the United States will compensate the survivors and families of the dead, issue an official apology or build a memorial to the victims.

The Army opposes compensating the families, the official said. The decision is expected to rest with President Clinton.

Chung Koo-do, spokesman of the committee representing South Korean survivors and victims' families, said his group strongly rejected the negotiators' conclusion.

``We condemn a U.S. attempt to whitewash the investigation,'' the spokesman said. ``We also denounce the South Korean government for abetting such a sinister attempt. If the Americans make the reported conclusion their final conclusion, they will face serious resistance from survivors and many other South Koreans as well as accusations that they distorted the findings of the investigation.''

In Seoul on Friday, the South Korean parliament approved a resolution calling for a quick resolution of the issue. Reflecting South Korean frustration at the length of the U.S. probe, the resolution stated, ``The U.S. government is buried in investigating unessential and peripheral issues, raising questions over whether it has the will to resolve the incident.'' It did not elaborate.

Caldera was widely expected to endorse both the agreed ``statement of mutual understanding'' and the conclusions reached in a yearlong investigation by Lt. Gen. Michael Ackerman, the Army's inspector general.

It is unlikely that either the investigation report or the joint statement will be publicly released until January, Pentagon officials said.

Donald Gregg, former US ambassador to South Korea and chairman of an eight-member panel of civilian experts named by the Pentagon to oversee the Army investigators, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The South Korean government conducted its own investigation. The results have not been made public.

At Defense Secretary William Cohen's instruction, Caldera initiated the probe on Sept. 30, 1999, after The Associated Press reported on the killings in a series of stories that won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. The Army previously had insisted there was no evidence of U.S. military involvement in the killings.

Cohen has not yet seen the Ackerman report, officials said, but he will get briefed on it soon.

The AP story quoted U.S. veterans as estimating 100, 200 or simply hundreds died in the attacks July 26-28, 1950. Korean relatives of the victims, who filed suit seeking compensation, said 300 were killed under the railroad bridge near No Gun Ri and 100 in a prior strafing by U.S. Air Force planes.

The Ackerman investigation of No Gun Ri included interviews with more than 100 servicemen and a review of more than a million pages of documents. It found no written orders directing GIs at No Gun Ri to open fire that day even though there were orders to treat civilian refugees as hostile targets, according to American officials familiar with the report.

Among ex-GIs interviewed earlier by AP, about 20 who were at No Gun Ri recalled orders to shoot. Other veterans said they didn't remember, or declined to talk about No Gun Ri.

Former Rep. Pete McCloskey, R-Calif., a member of the civilian advisory panel led by Gregg, said he disagreed with the report's conclusion that there was insufficient evidence of orders to fire on the refugees, and he urged as revision.

``We have seen statements from one officer and nine enlisted men at No Gun Ri who referred to those orders,'' McCloskey said. ``Unless the Army has information we have not yet seen, I can't understand how they reached their conclusion.''

The AP reported last month that two former soldiers who handled radio and message traffic had told Army investigators that American troops at No Gun Ri had orders from superiors to fire on civilians. Lawrence Levine and James Crume were assigned to the headquarters of 2nd battalion, 7th Cavalry regiment. They were the first from a higher command level to support publicly the recollections of other veterans that they were ordered to shoot civilians for fear North Korean infiltrators were among them.

Levine and Crume said they were unable to tell Army investigators after 50 years whether the shoot-to-kill edict came by radio or word of mouth, nor could they recall the exact wording. But both told the AP they were sure it originated at 1st Cavalry Division headquarters or higher — and that front-line GIs acted on that order.

The AP also found wartime documents showing at least three high-level Army headquarters and an Air Force command ordered troops to treat as hostile any civilians approaching U.S. positions. At the time, U.S. forces were in retreat, and thousands of refugees fled for their safety as the North Korean army advanced south.

On July 24, 1950, two days before the No Gun Ri incident, 1st Cavalry Division units were instructed: ``No refugees to cross the front line. Fire everyone trying to cross lines. Use discretion in case of women and children.''