A local court has ordered the government to compensate a Vietnamese national who lost family members in a civilian massacre carried out by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War.

The ruling issued by the Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday marks the first recognition of the South Korean government's responsibility for damages in connection to the historical event.

The court sided with the 63-year-old plaintiff, Nguyen Thi Thanh, demanding 30 million won, or nearly 24-thousand U.S. dollars, plus damages incurred due to the delay.

Nguyen filed the suit in April 2020 on the grounds that South Korean troops killed some 70 villagers, including her family, in the town of Điện Bàn in Quảng Nam Province during the Vietnam War in 1968.

The Seoul government contended that Viet Cong combatants could have disguised themselves as South Korean troops, while also arguing that such an act by actual South Korean soldiers would have been justifiable within the context of guerrilla warfare.

The statute of limitations was another point of contention during trial as the government insisted that it had expired, while the plaintiff argued that the case constitutes a situation where that notion cannot be applied.