U.S. unhappy about base cleanup talks

One-sided handling of environmental issues involved in the return of U.S. bases here to Korea would damage the South Korea-U.S. alliance, General B.B. Bell, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, warned yesterday.
Speaking at a meeting of the Korea Retired Generals and Admirals Association, General Bell said the handover of the former bases is being complicated by Seoul’s demands that the United States repair any environmental damage in the bases to be relocated from northern Gyeonggi province and Seoul city to more southern locations.
A Korean translation of the general’s comments was posted on the association’s Web site yesterday.
General Bell complained that U.S. maintenance of empty bases now costs $500,000 per month while the whole question of an environmental cleanup is being debated. He pointed to precedents in Germany and Japan, where environmental damage repair is a host-country obligation.
The two sides agreed to add environmental clauses to the Status of Forces Agreement in 2001, one that says the United States will “respect” Korean environmental laws. An official at the Defense Ministry’s environmental office said the whole matter is negotiable.
The Ministry of Environment says that the polluter should pay. The defense minister, Yoon Kwang-ung, has reportedly been pushing the Environment Ministry to strike an agreement on the matters, but negotiations are still stalled, as they have been for several years. But whatever the reason for the delay, a Korean military official said yesterday, the problem has raised U.S. suspicions that Seoul is using the matter to boost its political standing with environmentalists.“The U.S. thinks that the Korean government is not really making any effort to stop civic groups’ activities,” he said.
Environmental groups here say base lands must be returned to the standards set by Korea, not to the allegedly lower U.S. standards.
But the military official seemed to agree with General Bell’s complaints, saying political decisions must be made quickly to maintain trust in the alliance by the partners and to ease the way for other changes to the alliance structure now being discussed.
One of those changes may be the transfer of wartime control of the Korean military to Seoul. In what he called “personal comments,” General Bell told the retired flag officers he understood the demand and agreed with it.

by Kim Min-seok, Brian Lee