hankyoreh

used by the U.S. for five decades as a firing range

An unlicensed company has been hired by the U.S. Army to perform environmental cleanup work on polluted areas at five U.S. military bases to be returned to South Korea, a lawmaker claimed. The U.S Army promised South Korea it would perform the cleanup after the land and ground of the five military bases were polluted with oil earlier this year.

"Samsung Corp. signed a six-month deal with the U.S. Army to remove floating oil on the surface of ground water at the five bases," said Woo Won-sik, a lawmaker of the ruling Uri Party. "Samsung does not have a license to do this kind of work."

Under a law revised in December 2004, only those companies which have equipment and trained personnel certified by the government can engage in environmental cleanup operations. There are 43 companies registered for this work. Violators can face up to two years in prison and 10 million (US$10,400) in fines.

After clinching the deal, Woo said, Samsung imported specially-designed oil pumps from the U.S. and launched the base clean-up operation in August, which is "a violation of the law."

Samsung countered that its current work on U.S. bases are not subject to South Korean law. But it also said that it had subcontracted an officially registered company to help with the work. However, Samsung would not disclose the name of the subcontracted company.

But Rep. Woo said that U.S. soliders, not contractors, are exempt from South Korean law. The current cleanup operation is "like an unlicensed doctor treating patients," he said.