hankyoreh

One of 15 U.S. bases which the United States Forces Korea (USFK) gave back to South Korea after it said it had completed a required cleanup of environmental pollution, Nong Island at Maehyang-ri in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, is in fact a grave of rusty shells.

There were dozens of piles of BDU-33 bomb shells visible on the ground at Nong Island on July 21. MK-82 shells, at 227-kg each, were wedged in the island’s mud flats and emerged on the surface here and there under the flow of water. On one edge of the island, stuck in the earth, were several scores of shells from A-10 and F-16 fighters.

Vehicles loaded with missile launching pads which the U.S. air force set up as shooting targets were left there as if the island were a scrap heap. On Nong Island, no crabs were seen scuttling around the shore, a common sight on any beach in the area. Wires, empty cartridges, and rusted tin sheets from shells are the area’s only inhabitants.

"We decided to take over the Maehyang-ri shooting range after USFK informed us that it had finished cleanup to remove duds, lead, and copper," the South Korean Ministry of National Defense on July 14 said, However, the situation on the ground at the site tells a different story.

Fisherman Chu Yong-bae, 60, said that "whenever water flows in, it is red from the heavy metals of the rusty shells stuck in the tidal flats. The heavy metals in the mud flat have poisoned the shellfish" and anything else alive, he said. Residents of the island must go to distant tidal flats, 30 to 40 minutes away by boat, to catch shellfish.

The Defense Ministry on July 14 announced to residents that the shooting range had been returned to South Korea. Chon Man-kyu, a leader of a residents’ group, said, "We demanded that experts recommended by the residents take part in the turnover process and that the ministry should disclose the data from its investigation on environmental pollution, but the ministry insisted that the investigation was between South Korea and the U.S. and that it could not disclose data. Then the ministry took the base over unilaterally."

At a press conference, the residents’ committee and the Korea Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) urged the government to perform a reinvestigation on environmental pollution and cleanup of the Maehyang-ri shooting range. They also claimed that USFK should pay the cleanup costs and that the government negotiators should be reprimanded for imposing a heavy burden on the people of Korea.