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The former lot for the US Army Corps of Engineers Far East District at Yongsan Garrison (Hankyoreh photo archives)

The South Korean and US governments announced an agreement to return around 500,000 square meters of Yongsan Garrison in Seoul to South Korea by early next year.

The area is equivalent to approximately one-quarter of the 2.03 million square meters that is supposed to be returned to South Korea from the garrison.

The return plan for the Yongsan Garrison region was discussed in a telephone conversation Thursday morning between Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) joint committee representatives Ko Yun-ju, director of the North American affairs bureau for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and Lt. Gen. Scott Pleus, deputy commander of US Forces Korea, the MOFA said Thursday.

The ministry added that the SOFA joint committee had adopted a joint statement reflecting the agreement.

While the two sides did reach an agreement Thursday on returning 500,000 square meters from the garrison site, they also plan to “cooperate closely” on remaining issues to be discussed, including joint environmental impact assessment procedures and the installation of fencing between the returned area and the area that is currently in use.

Following the 2002 Land Partnership Plan and the 2004 Yongsan Relocation Plan, major units at Yongsan Garrison and associated troops and facilities have been relocated to places such as Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

But the ROK/US Combined Forces Command (CFC) remains at Yongsan Garrison.

A MOFA official said Thursday that the “objective is to relocate the CFC by at least the first half of next year.”

“I don’t think it will be that much longer [until the relocation],” the official said.

In December 2020, the South Korean government received back the garrison’s sports field and softball field sites — an area of 53,418 square meters, or roughly 2.6 percent of Yongsan Garrison’s total area.

To date, the two sides have agreed to returns for 68 out of 80 US bases subject to returns but failed to bridge their differences on the remaining 12 — including Yongsan Garrison — due to matters such as cleaning up environmental contamination.

In addition to Yongsan, the 12 unreturned bases include the Seoul Transportation Motor Pool (also in Yongsan District), Camp Morse (Jung District) in Seoul; Camps Red Cloud and Stanley in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province; and Camps Casey and Hovey in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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