SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. and South Korean investigators moved closer to resolving disagreements over the killing of refugees by U.S. troops at the Korean hamlet of No Gun Ri, a South Korean official said Thursday.
But the two sides did not say whether they agreed on a proposed statement of "mutual understanding" to summarize the results of separate yearlong investigations of the killings during the early days of the Korean War.
The two investigation teams, which had previously disagreed over the casualty toll during the incident and whether the GIs acted on orders, ended 16 hours of talks early Thursday.
"We have narrowed differences and we will continue talks to finish the negotiations," said Kim Byong-ho, chief policy coordinator at the South Korean prime minister's office.
He said an advisory panel to the South Korean investigators will go to Washington, but did not say when. The two sides hoped to wrap up negotiations before President Clinton leaves office next month, Kim said.
"We have no statement to make," said Assistant Secretary of the Army Patrick T. Henry, leader of the Pentagon delegation.
The inquiries were launched after The Associated Press, citing ex-GIs and Korean survivors, reported in September 1999 that U.S. forces strafed and later shot a large number of refugees at a railroad trestle in late July 1950.
At the time, U.S. soldiers were engaged in a chaotic retreat southward and feared North Korean infiltrators were among fleeing refugees.
U.S. Army investigators have concluded American soldiers killed a substantial number of Korean refugees near No Gun Ri but found no definitive evidence they fired under orders from superiors, a senior Pentagon official said.
His comments Wednesday marked the Army's first acknowledgment of U.S. soldiers' involvement in the killings at No Gun Ri. Previously, the Army denied a U.S. role.
The Pentagon official also said the two sides disagreed on how many civilians perished.
A Korean document obtained Wednesday by AP confirmed that the casualty figure and whether GIs fired under orders were major points of contention. The South Koreans were insisting there was sufficient evidence that orders were issued.
The document reflected the U.S. position as of early November, according to a Korean source close to the investigation.
At a 30-minute closed meeting Thursday, several survivors of the No Gun Ri incident asked Henry and three other Pentagon investigators to respond to reports that GIs fired on orders, and said the Pentagon investigation had been too slow.
According to the survivors, the Pentagon team said only that it was considering their position and all other evidence.
"There's only one truth but they're trying to make it into two," said Chung Koo-do, spokesman for the survivors. "Reports say that there has been an order to shoot. If the final results don't say this, we will launch a joint investigation team of domestic and international human rights groups and scholars."
The U.S. Army's findings, which are not final, were first reported Wednesday by The Washington Post, which said military investigators could not determine how many civilians perished at No Gun Ri.
However, a South Korean official said the Pentagon investigators told the South Korean side that the report was not the U.S. government's official conclusion.
To be determined separately is whether the U.S. government will compensate victims' families and apologize. About 170 Korean families are seeking payments.
The AP report, which won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, said former U.S. soldiers estimated the number killed as 100, 200 or simply "hundreds." Korean survivors said 400 died.
According to the Korean document outlining the views of the two sides, Seoul investigators said they had compiled a list of 248 people who were killed, wounded or missing. It said the Americans referred to a lower figure. Both sides said the final number of casualties could not be confirmed.
Korean officials have said failure to satisfy Korean public opinion could damage bilateral ties and trigger anti-American sentiment in the country where 37,000 U.S. troops remain on duty.
Also Thursday, U.S. and South Korean negotiators canceled a meeting to discuss revisions of a legal code governing the conduct of American soldiers in South Korea. South Korean officials cited wide disagreements between the two sides.
South Korean critics say the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, is too lenient toward the U.S. military and infringes on the South's national sovereignty.