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A wall of a U.S. military base, set to be returned to Korea.
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Handover announced after close of environmental negotiations
The Ministry of National Defense has taken over four additional U.S. bases not initially agreed upon at South Korea-U.S. negotiations over return of United States Forces Korea (USFK) military facilities. However, the bases were not discussed in negotiations over U.S. environmental cleanup of the land it has held for military use. At a joint press briefing after South Korea-U.S. negotiations concluded on July 14, the ministries of Environment, National Defense, and Foreign Affairs and Trade announced that "the two countries reached an agreement that 15 bases, at which the U.S. has said it completed cleanup of environmental pollution, will be returned to Korea." However, the additional four bases - camps Gerry Owen, Grey, Kyle, and a training range in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province - were not included in the initial USFK handover plan, nor was their takeover by South Korea officially announced. This indicates that the Korean government might have withheld the actual number of military bases to be returned. Official announcements on the environmental cleanup situation at the four additional bases have not been made. Observers worry that the exclusion of the bases from the July 14 announcement could reflect U.S. plans to return the four bases as they are, and that the Defense Ministry has accepted the U.S. decision.Camp Gerry Owen sits on about 86,000-pyeong (284,300 square meters). An investigation there, conducted by a joint committee formed under the terms of the South Korea-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and a subcommittee of the National Assembly’s Environment Ministry, found serious soil pollution. When questioned, a ministry official said, "Korea and the U.S. have not reached an agreement over the four bases." But, he added, "the U.S. has withdrawn from the bases in a hope to reduce its budget, and we have placed our soldiers there to protect the bases."
