‘Anomalous areas’ found at Camp Carroll: Probe

A joint South Korea-U.S. investigation team said yesterday that “anomalies” recently discovered at a U.S. military base aren’t necessarily metallic.

The clarification came on the heels of an announcement last Friday that the joint team had detected unidentified metal objects buried under a helipad at Camp Carroll in Chilgok, about 190 miles southeast of Seoul. U.S. veterans who served here decades ago claimed they had buried containers of Agent Orange toxic defoliant.

In a statement, the joint team said its survey “only indicated anomalous areas under the ground.

“While these anomalies could be metallic, they could also be areas of different soil density, soil composition or water,” it said. “All tests to date indicate no evidence of Agent Orange in Camp Carroll or in the adjacent communities.”

Agent Orange was widely used to clear leaves from trees and plant life during wars. The cancer-causing chemical was allegedly sprayed in the 1960s around the demilitarized zone to thwart North Korean infiltrations.

Last week, the team said it would begin drilling in over 40 spots under the helipad, including one where the unidentified metallic substances are buried, and take soil samples to test for pollution. The result of the soil test is due in late August, the team added.

The U.S. military has conceded that the burial took place but said that the waste was removed in the late 1970s and shipped out of the country.

About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Yonhap