A Korea-US consortium said the planned relocation of US bases in Korea to Pyeongtaek will be completed by 2012, although the Defense Ministry said an official agreement is still necessary. Funny, I thought we had an agreement… 2008.
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4 Comments
Based on your link (quoted below) I guess this September will be the next “hard” date to check up on this issue to see if anything is really going to happen.
Like you said a long while back, I’d just as soon see this whole thing not happen anyway: that way the locals can keep their land, unsullied by the boot of the foreigners, and in turn this will (hopefully) provide the final impetus towards the withdrawl of US ground combat forces.
“….Korea and the United States will break ground for the construction in September, the ministry said.
The ministry said the relocation date has not yet been finalized.
“For the conclusion of the relocation date, we still need an official agreement between Korea and the United States after a thorough review on the date presented by the consortium,” Lee Jae-young, a spokesman at the U.S. Forces Korea Base Relocation Office at the Defense Ministry, told reporters….”
Common, Robert. Get over it. The 2008 timeline was lost years ago.the scale of the construction work is massive. it’s not something that can be done in a year or so and takes a lot of preparation. there’s been lots and lots of stalling since they reached agreement on that timeline a few years back but the fact is that they would have had to start construction RIGHT AT THE TIME THEY REACHED THE AGREEMENT if they wanted to finish it on time.
in other words, the 2008 timeline was never realistic in the first place. then you factor in the disagreements between the koreans and the US military on what kind of base to build. then you factor in the disagreements on cost-sharing. then you factor in environmental problems at bases around the country. then you factor in the farmers who (can you blame them?) didn’t particularly want their land appropriated and the political problem the Roh Admin had to evict them.
bottom line, i, like you, wish the US would just tell the koreans to piss off and pull their military out completely. what bothers me about this process is not that the deadline has been pushed back, it’s that any time/effort/money is being expended at all to build this base when everyone knows that the defense alliance is in more or less in the crapper (nothwithstanding the recent House “thank you”), the fact that the koreans can quickly develop their own defense capability, and the fact that Korean have no god damn appreciation for what the americans have done for them.
phew. ok, i can go to work now. have a good one.
Welll, I was down at Camp Humphrey a few weeks ago as a guest of USFK and UNC and I was amazed at the progress being made there already toward the relocation. The Korean Defense Ministry guys need a reality check….maybe they should go and take a peek themselves?
There are already new apartment buildings and other facilities completed and a beautiful new swimming pool complex with huge infinity pools and lifeguards. Also specially constructed roads linking the new parcels of land acquired….with heavy construction trucks rushing back and forth. It will be increasing in size by two-thirds to accommodate 45,000 servicemen and their families.
Make sure to move EVERYTHING out of Yongsan.
And, the USFK will leave South Korea AFTER Korea’s re-unification.