He served in a unit of the puppet army in Cholwon County, south Korean Kangwon Province at that time.

In those days the U.S. forces sprayed by helicopter toxic defoliant in the Demilitarized Zone 3-4 times in a month, he said, adding that grasses and trees parched red in the places through which helicopters passed.

He sprayed defoliant with bare hands at his senior's beck and call under the watch of the U.S. forces late in the 1960s, he noted, saying that the state of weeds parching to death was the same as was seen in Cholwon County.

He is reported to have suffered such serious pain with his knuckles bended and his left leg paralyzed from more than 20 years ago owing to the aftermath of defoliant.