A television documentary has uncovered evidence that South Korean soldiers killed large numbers of unarmed civilians during the Vietnam war.

The programme, by KBS-TV a state-run television station in South Korea, interviewed Vietnamese survivors and South Korean soldiers, who admitted to the killings.

The soldiers said the attacks were in retaliation for guerrilla ambushes, or because they suspected the villagers were hiding Vietcong fighters.

In one case, the programme said South Korean marines killed forty-six people in retaliation for a grenade attack that injured one soldier and a translator.

There has never been an official investigation into the deaths; South Korea's defence ministry did not comment on the programme. More than three-hundred-thousand South Koreans fought alongside American troops in the Vietnam War between 1964 and 1973.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service