Relocation of the Yongsan Base in Next Year.

It has been observed that the relocation plan for the Yongsan U.S Force Base will be prepared by the end of May and will be decided by the end of the year, thus will be proceeded in a full scale from next year. Moreover, it is more likely that the south region of Han River will be a powerful proposed site for the new base.

The Ministry of National Defense clarified on the 24th that the both countries of Korea and the United States have requested an American professional service organ to establish the Initial Master Plan (IMP) for the relocation of the Yongsan Base in last December and the result of it will be ready at the end of May. IMP is a process of reexamining the actual conditions of the various base facilities within the present Yongsan Base and investigating the relocation expenses in details as well as the necessary matters before the relocation.

Yoeng-Gu, Cha (Lieutenant General of the Korean Army), a policy section chief of the Ministry of National Defense stated, “When the IMP comes out, processes of computing the specific relocation expenses as well as selecting the possible relocation site will be started. Since the United States strongly desired the relocation of the base in accordance with our citizen`s request, the final relocation plan, including the relocation expenses and the site must be decided by the end of the year at the latest.”

“When the final relocation plan gets decided after going through the sanctions of the President and the National Assembly, it has been planned that the associated parties will form a relocation promotion committee to start the negotiation with the United States. It looks like the two countries would most likely to have a long-lasting negotiation process regarding the relocation expenses and the proposed site”, he added.

In relation to the relocation expenses, he excluded the possibility of the United States sharing the expenses by stating, “Since the relocation of the Yongsan Base was according to the request of the Korean citizens, not the necessity of the United States Armed Force, it seems right for Korea to bear the relocation expenses.”

He also suggested that the issue of the Yongsan Base relocation and the issue of the reduction of the United States Armed Force in Korea can be closely related by stating the following, “It is inevitable to discuss about the size of the relocation of the military power in the Yongsan Base in the process of the Korean-American Future Alliance Policy Planning Conference which is to be held in the beginning of April.”

He also added that he would have two conferences with Richard Rollis, an assistant secretary of the United States Department of Defense in charge of the East Asia and the Pacific Regions who is visiting Korea from the 26th through the 28th, to discuss the relocation of the United States Armed Forces in Korea, the schedule of the relocation of the Yongsan Base as well as the basic topics in relation to the future Korean-American Alliance Development.

Both countries of Korea and the United States had contracted a memorandum of mutual agreement and a memorandum of understanding in June of 1990 to relocate the Yongsan Base in the year of 1996 with Korea bearing the 1.7 billion dollars of the relocation expenses. However, as the reduction plan of the United States Armed Force in Korea got cancelled and the relocation military power increased by large number, the Ministry of National Defense held back the entire plan of the relocation in July 1993 when the United States Armed Forces requested 9.5 billion dollars as the relocation expense.

On the other side, the Ministry of National Defense clarified that the currently processed United Land Management Plan for the unity and the abolition of the bases of the current United States Armed Forces is a separate topic from the problem of the Yongsan Base relocation issue.

Sang-Ho Yun ysh1005@donga.com