South Korea effectively gives up on getting US to clean up returned military base in Wonju

Posted on : 2017-08-01 07:11 KST Modified on : 2017-08-01 07:11 KST
US refusal to clean up could set a precedent for the 22 US bases that are still to be returned to South Korea
The main entrance to Camp Long
The main entrance to Camp Long

The South Korean government has decided to effectively give up asking the US military to clean up contamination at Camp Long, a base in Wonju, Gangwon Province, that remains “US land” seven years after its closure, as environmental talks with the US have dragged out.

The situation means South Korea is more likely to be on the hook for the costs of cleaning up the 340,000 square meters of the camp, which is to be the first US base returned to South Korea under the Moon Jae-in administration.

“During the next round with the US military [currently planned for mid-August], we plan to halt environmental discussions on Camp Long in Wonju and refer the issue to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ special joint committee as ‘unresolved,’“ explained Kim Ji-yeon, head of the Ministry of Environment’s land and underground water division and the South Korean chairperson on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) environmental subcommittee, in a recent telephone interview with the Hankyoreh.

If the South Korea-US environment talks on Camp Long are suspended as unresolved, special joint committee procedures will begin for the base’s return in its current contaminated state without any cleanup measures by the US military. The same situation happened with Camp Castle in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province and the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) in Busan, which were returned in Mar. 2015.

The reason Seoul is suspending environmental talks without an agreement is that it is focusing more on returning the base quickly than on continuing to try to hold the US military responsible for contamination cleanup that it refuses to perform. Wonju city government, which has been pushing plans to build a culture and sports park on the Camp Long site since 2012 after US forces departed and the camp was shut down in 2010, has proposed around 70 times that the central government hasten the return. The city government has already paid the Ministry of National Defense the 66.5 billion won (US$59.2 million) contracted amount to purchase the land.

“Based on precedent, the final return will come after [the matter] goes through the special joint committee and the Ministry of National Defense’s facility subcommittee, combined with the local community’s desire to have it take place quickly,” said Kim Ji-yeon.

According to the Joint Environmental Assessment Procedure (JEAP) agreed upon by South Korea and the US in 2009, the base’s return is to follow a sequence where the Ministry of National Defense decides to initiate the process, after which the matter is subjected to environmental subcommittee discussions (Ministry of Environment), the return is proposed by the facilities subcommittee, and the joint committee (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) approves the return. In the event that South Korea and the US fail to reach an agreement in their environmental talks, the environmental subcommittee can hasten the return process by referring discussions to the special joint committee (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Unlike the environmental talks, however, the focus there would be the return procedure rather than holding the US military responsible for contamination.

Indeed, the Camp Castle and Busan DRMO base returns were both handled after the cases were referred to the special joint committee, without any cleanup measures taken by the US military. The Ministry of National Defense announced orders for a 19.6 billion won (US$17.5 million) cleanup project for the 200,000 square meter Camp Castle site after US troops left. Cleanup for the Busan DRMO (29,354 square meters) is expected to cost 6.8 billion won (US$6.1 million); the site has been left in its contaminated state for over two years as the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport have shifted responsibility for the effort.

The South Korean government is expected to follow the same path as Camp Castle and the Busan DRMO by bearing the costs for the Camp Long cleanup. The government has twice compensated Wonju for a total of 230 million won (US$204,800) in cleanup costs after oil leaked outside the base in 2001. At present, the level of contamination inside the base and the anticipated costs of a cleanup remain wholly unknown.

The result is a contradictory situation where a swift return is more beneficial from the standpoint of the different government offices and local governments, even if it means a larger taxpayer price tag as South Korea absorbs the cleanup costs. For the Ministry of National Defense’s US Forces Korea base relocation project team – which has stated that Camp Long will “almost definitely be returned within the year” - it means it can speed up the US base relocation effort; the Ministry of Environment can reduce the burden of environmental talks dragging out. The same goes for the local government, which would like to get the land quickly so it can put it to use. With the same confluence of factors every time, Camp Long in Wonju now appears likely to down as another precedent for the remaining 22 US bases to be returned, including Yongsan Garrison in Seoul and Camp Hovey in Dongducheon.

By Lim Ji-sun, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

7) The main entrance to Camp Long, a US military base in Wonju, Gangwon Province that was closed in 2010, in June. South Koreans are not permitted past this gate. (by Kim Seong-gwang, staff photographer)

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