The government did not violate the law when it exploded a bridge in Seoul without warning the public days after the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War, killing hundreds of people, a Seoul court ruled Tuesday.
At 2:30 a.m. on June 28, 1950, the government blew up the only bridge over the Han River, which cuts through the capital city of Seoul, in order to prevent the North Korean army from advancing south.
Some 600 to 700 people are estimated to have been killed in the explosion while crossing the bridge.
About two dozen children and grandchildren of 12 lawmakers who were kidnapped by the North during the war sued the state for damages, claiming that the government was responsible for the kidnappings because it did not evacuate the lawmakers after blowing up the bridge.
The plaintiffs argued that the kidnappings could have been easily anticipated.
"With no agreement between the government, the military and the parliament on how to defend Seoul, (the government) blew up the bridge out of necessity in order to delay the advance of the (North Korean) military," the Seoul Central District Court said in a ruling.
"Although various historical assessments are possible from the current point of view, it is difficult to regard it as a deliberate or accidental violation of the law."
The explosion left 1.5 million Seoul citizens and 40,000 troops stranded.
Amid growing public criticism, the government of then President Syngman Rhee executed the military's chief engineer, Colonel Choi Chang-sik, by firing squad on charges of "misbehavior before the enemy" in September 1950. He was posthumously acquitted of the charge in a retrial in 1962.
The three-year conflict ended in an armistice in July 1953, leaving the two Koreas technically in a state of war.