Contaminated US military bases need an explanation, not an alibi

Members of civic groups hold a press conference outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul’s Jongno district calling for the US government to clean up contamination on US military bases being returning to South Korea, Mar. 19. (by Lee Jong-geun, staff photographer)

Ministry that recently carried out return of bases did so without proper announcement or cleanup of contamination

Two former US military bases were officially returned to South Korea on Mar. 13 after an agreement by the South Korean government that did not require environment cleanup efforts by USFK, it was belatedly confirmed recently.

The two bases, Camp Castle in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, and the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) in Busan, have been the subject of controversy over the presence of untreated contaminants. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was in charge of the joint committee for the South Korea-US Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), had not even put out a one-page press release on the matter, and it was not until Mar. 24 that a spokesperson confirmed the completion of the return while answering questions from reporters during a regular briefing.

The resolution is distinctly unsatisfying, with official confirmation of the two bases’ return coming ten days after the fact - even with the press and civic groups closely monitoring the issue.

“My understanding is that it was explained by the Ministry of National Defense,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said on Mar. 23 in response to a reporter’s confirmation request on the completion of return procedures for the two bases.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not issue press releases for individual base returns,” the official added.

So how does one interpret the same ministry that provides briefings on the unveiling of statues of Joseon Dynasty-era diplomats (in a Mar. 24 press release titled “Statue Unveiling for ‘Chungsukgong’ Lee Ye”) deciding that a negotiation deal on the return of US military bases does not require the same kind of announcement?

According to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, the Ministry of National Defense did print explanatory materials on the return and deliver a briefing in its press room at around 3 pm on Friday, Mar. 13. But the format was distinctly different from the typical way of distributing press releases. The materials were not texted or emailed by the ministry to reporters who were not present during the briefing, and the information was never posted on its web page. It is difficult to shake the sense that this “explanation” from the ministry was intended more as an alibi than anything else. It is also worth noting that no news outlet had reported on the ministry’s announcement of the procedure’s completion before its Mar. 24 briefing.

Even the National Assembly appeared unaware of the “resolution” on the environmental cleanup issue. The Ministry of Environment, which oversees the SOFA environment committee, has refused to disclose the details, insisting that any release “must be agreed upon with the US.” But the fact that ministry’s explanatory materials refer to “delivering the returned bases to the user following environmental contamination cleanup efforts according to the standards of domestic environment law” suggests fairly clearly that the bases were returned with most of the contamination untreated.

A “strategic environmental impact assessment report” acquired by New Politics Alliance for Democracy lawmaker Woo Won-shik for the construction of a North Seoul campus for Dongyang University in Dongducheon showed soil and underground water contamination over an area of 43,073 ㎡, or 27.6% of the total Camp Castle site, which is to be used for the campus. The report also noted the risk of a possible spread of contamination outside the base.

By Kim Jung-soo, senior staff writer

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