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US Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

The list of US domestic and overseas military facilities projects from which the US Defense Department has decided to divert funds to construct a wall on the Mexican border includes the US$17.5 million “CP Tango,” a South Korea-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) wartime command post in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, and a US$53 million unmanned air vehicle hangar at Kunsan Air Base.

The two sites were included on a list of domestic and overseas projects that are having their funding deferred as announced by the Pentagon on Sept. 4. The Defense Department plans to divert US$3.6 billion in budget funds from 127 domestic and overseas projects to build the 175-mile wall on the Mexican border. A total of 19 countries, including Germany and Japan, are to be affected by the decision to divert a total of US$1,836,7500,000 (not including two locations whose countries were not specified); in the case of the two US Forces Korea facilities, a total of US$70.5 million is to be used for the Mexican border wall.

The Pentagon’s decision to divert the budgets comes after US President Donald Trump declared a state of national emergency in the Mexican border region in February and enabled the use of defense budget monies for the wall’s construction without congressional approval.

The decision, which comes ahead of South Korea-US defense cost sharing negotiations scheduled to start later this month, is raising concerns that the US may try to burden Seoul with responsibility for funding the CP Tango and hangar sites. But a Washington source explained, “The structure isn’t one where the US can pass off the burden of costs arising from budget diversion, and we aren’t seeing any indications of that happening.” A South Korean Ministry of National Defense official stressed, “These are the US’ own military construction project budgets, which have nothing whatsoever to do with South Korea’s share of defense costs.”

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent, and Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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