Progress on US Camp Pollution Issue
There has been some progress on turning over the closed US bases in South Korea:
Seoul and Washington Friday agreed on the transfer of 15 of 59 U.S. bases to South Korea where the U.S. side had cleaned up environmental pollution in accordance with a bilateral accord, the Defense Ministry said.
The agreement was made during the ninth Security Policy Initiative (SPI) meeting in Seoul.
The 15 bases include the Camp Bonifas near the inter-Korean border; the Camp Howze and the Camp Greaves both in Paju, Kyonggi Province; and the Koon-Ni Range in Maehyang-ni, Kyonggi Province, the ministry said in a statement.
The two sides, however, failed to narrow differences over cleanup costs and contamination levels at 11 other bases which have soil pollution levels in excess of South Korean environmental standards.
They will continue discussions on the matter in the next meeting slated for September, it said.
Keep in mind the Koreans signed an agreement saying they would take the camps “as is”, but of course the anti-US hate groups and the political allies demagogued the issue enough to where the camp turn over has been delayed for over a year for some of the camps. Also keep in mind these so call “polluted” camps are actually oasis of green in the real polluted Korean urban jungle that surrounds the camps. That is what is so frustrating about this issue because all the time and energy spent on this so called camp pollution issue would be better served by focusing on all the real pollution in Korea.
It is safe to say the anti-US hate groups are not happy right now:
Seoul will pay for any additional required work and turn the sites over to the local governments in the areas. Kim Hak-ju of the Environment Ministry said no estimate has been made of those costs.
Yun Gi-don of Green Korea United mourned the agreement, saying he did not think the public would accept the outcome.
This is what I don’t understand. If Green Korea was a real environmental group why should they care who pays for the clean up, as long as it is getting cleaned up. The Korean government has said they will pick up the extra costs of any environmental clean up, so what grievance does Green Korea have? This just goes to show that they don’t care about the environment, this is all about stopping the USFK move to Camp Humphreys and in turn trying to end the US-ROK alliance. Green Korea’s real agenda is clear as day right now, but I don’t think anyone is watching.
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UPDATE:Â Where is Green Korea on this issue?
