South Korea said Monday it will start the construction of a weapons scoring system for U.S. Air Force troops stationed here on remote islets next month, Air Force officials said Monday.
"It is an urgent issue, so we will push to complete the construction as early as three months rather than the originally planned six months," a South Korean Air Force official said.
South Korea has been pushing to start building the weapons impact scoring system (WISS) at the bombing range on Jikdo, a group of uninhabited islets 70 kilometers off the southwestern port city of Gunsan, by October, when South Korea and the U.S. are scheduled to hold an annual defense ministers' meeting.
But residents of the neighboring islands and local fishermen have staged vehement protests, citing concerns about noise, environmental damage and the potential for accidents.
On Thursday, Lt. Gen. Garry Trexler, the second in command of U.S. troops here, warned that the U.S. may move its fighter planes out of South Korea within 30 days if the delay continues.
The U.S. complains that its Air Force cannot properly conduct bombing exercises since it shut down the Kooni Range in Maehyangri, southwest of Seoul, in August 2005, saying it presents a challenge to the U.S.-South Korea alliance.
Some U.S. military officials have even threatened to move the 7th Air Force in Osan, 55 kilometers south of Seoul, to another location unless it is provided with improved training conditions.
On Sunday, the Gunsan city government decided to accept the defense ministry's offer to build the system, which includes a financial aid package worth 340 billion won (US$350 million), plus more undisclosed aid in the form of a package.
The ministry will spend some 2.7 billion won to build five scoring cameras and three steel towers for electronic transmission starting in October, according to Air Force officials familiar with the project.
Currently, South Korean and U.S. pilots use the Jikdo range at the ratio of 8:2, but the U.S. side wants more time for training.
The ratio will be adjusted to 7:3 after the construction of the system, they said.
U.S. Air Force pilots currently use two training ranges, including the Jikdo islets, together with their South Korean counterparts, but they insist that the ranges be equipped with state-of-the-art scoring facilities.
About 30,000 U.S. troops, including 9,000 Air Force personnel, are currently stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. The number is scheduled to go down to 25,000 by 2008.
The two Koreas are still technically in a state of war, since the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The Seoul-Washington alliance has faced fundamental changes in recent years, as South Korea demands a greater role in its military operations to reduce its 680,000-strong military's dependence on U.S. forces.
The U.S., for its part, has also begun transforming its fixed military bases in South Korea into more mobile, streamlined forces as part of its global troop-realignment plan.
Gunsan/Seoul, Sept. 25 (Yonhap News)
S. Korea to start building scoring system for U.S. Air Force next month |
