Return Date of 14 U.S. Military Bases Moved Up

Fourteen U.S. military bases in Korea, including Camp Page in Chuncheon and Camp Hialeah in Busan, will be given back to Korea next year, one to six years earlier than originally scheduled.

Meanwhile, completion of the Yongsan base relocation to Pyeongtaek will be postponed to the end of 2008, one year later than originally planned.

The base schedule adjustments are part of the revised 2002 Land Partnership Plan (LPP) agreed on by Korea and the U.S. at the 10th round of the Future of the Alliance (FOTA) Policy Initiative talks held Friday in Washington.

In the original LPP, the U.S. promised the return of 41.14 million pyong of land by 2011, including 2.14 million pyong from 28 military bases and facilities, and 39 million pyong from three training fields. In the revised LPP, the land to be returned to Korea was increased by 25.6 percent, to a total of 51.67 million pyong, including 12.18 million pyong from 34 bases and the same 39 million pyong from the three training fields.

In return, Korea will provide U.S. troops with a total of 3.62 million pyong of land, including 520,000 pyong in Pyeongtaek for the Yongsan base relocation; 2.23 million pyong in Pyeongtaek for the 2nd Infantry Division relocation; and 740,000 pyong in Pyeongtaek and 13,000 pyong in Pohang-Daegu for the relocation of the other U.S. military bases.

According to the changed schedule for return, the bases to be returned in 2005 include Camp Page in Chuncheon, Camp Hialeah in Busan, Camp Howze and Stanton in Paju, and Camp Falling Water in Uijeongbu. The ones to be returned in 2006 include camps LaGuardia, Kyle and Sears in Uijeongbu and Camp Castle in Dongducheon.

The completion of the LPP will cut the number of U.S. military bases in Korea from 21 to 17. The amount of base land will decline 66 percent, from 73.20 million pyong to 25.15 million pyong.

“I was told that the overall completion of the LPP and repositioning of the 2nd Infantry Division to south Han River were rescheduled for around 2008,” said a person from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The relocation of the Yongsan base to Pyeongtaek is to be completed by the end of 2007 and the relocation of the other forces such as Combined Forces Command (CFC) and United Nations Command (UNC) is to be completed by 2008. Accordingly, from 2009 only Dragon Hill Hotel and the Seoul offices of the ROK-U.S. work cooperation group, united commander and deputy commander will remain at Yongsan.

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com