hankyoreh

With South Korea and the U.S. holding negotiations over who should bear responsibility for the cleanup of environmental pollution at United States Forces Korea (USFK) bases to be returned to Korea, it was revealed the USFK plans to pull its management out of the 15 bases concerned.

An city official from Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, said, "The USFK informed us that it has decided to pull its management from Camp Nimble in mid-July and will take similar measures at bases across the nation that are due to be given back to Korea."

According to a high-ranking city official in Uijeongbu, also in Gyeonggi Province, U.S. Commander Forest Newton said on June 28 that control over Camp Kyle and Camp Sears will be handed over to the South Korean Ministry of National Defense on July 15.

Yun Gi-don, a leader of the environmental group Green Korea United, said, "The U.S. side has raised complaints because they have to pay hundreds of thousand dollars a month to manage the bases. If the security company hired by the U.S. withdraws, our government or related local authorities must manage the bases."

The USFK has repeatedly turned down requests from Seoul that it clean up soil contamination on the bases under environmental law. The USFK instead unilaterally informed Seoul of its plan in connection with returning the land. The South Korean government found the plan unsatisfactory because it contained only basic cleanup measures. The USFK, however, executed the basic cleanup and then dismissed those who worked on it from duty, suggesting no further steps would be taken to decontaminate the land.

Regarding this, an official from the South Korean Ministry of Environment said that the two nations had reached an agreement that the bases would be returned to Korea after cleanup work deemed satisfactory by both sides is completed. Therefore, he said, the U.S. pullout of management and staff on the bases could go against the agreement.

"We are going to take measures after consulting with related ministries," the official added.

South Korea and the U.S. have held negotiations regarding the handover of the bases for more than a year. The mutual agreement reached states that when the bases are returned to Korea, the two countries will conduct joint environmental surveys. If pollution requiring further cleanup is found, the two nations will hold consultations on ways to solve the problem, and the U.S. would bear the entire expense under the terms of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

The South Korean government said that the soil contamination should be cleaned up under national environmental regulations, as well. "In contrast," it said, "the U.S. position is that under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in 2001, the USFK does not have to take responsibility for soil contamination."