Why am I not surprised that talk about the delay of the Camp Humphreys expansion is finally starting  to materialize:

The disclosure that rice planting has gone forward heightens tensions in the ongoing standoff between the resisters and South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.

Mun said the planting of a rice crop is significant because of a South Korean court ruling in an unrelated case, which, if applied to Daechu-ri and depending on how it might be interpreted, could block the government from disturbing the crops once the stalks grow past a few centimeters.

That’s why MND is in a hurry to destroy the rice fields, because they are afraid to see the rice bud, Mun said………….

So it is very, very sensitive, very, very delicate, Hyun said. If the government [uses] force, then probably more people might have more sympathy on the farmers, because they are weaker.

On the other hand, said Hyun, if the government cannot control them, then probably the whole timetable will be delayed. We are targeting that 2008 is the year that the U.S. military will move to that area so this year could be quite crucial.

I have been saying this for awhile that if the Camp Humphreys expansion does not happen the US-ROK alliance as we know it will be over.  The US will redeploy soldiers from Korea instead of keeping the current status quo because the current location of the US bases is unsuitable.  The current USFK facilities have been swallowed up by the bordering cities which has greatly degraded training of forces due to off limits roadways and training areas plus the fear of traffic accidents.  Yongsan Garrison is the most glaring example of this because it is located in the middle of the Korean capitol of Seoul.  The best way to describe the location of Yongsan is to picture an extremely large foreign military base in the middle of downtown Manhattan.  That is what Yongsan Garrison is to Seoul and the US government wants to change that because it is just unsuitable for today’s realities in Korea.

The anti-US hate groups in Korea are trying to use the Camp Humphreys relocation, the utterly false environmental contamination charges, and the cost sharing issues to drive a wedge between USFK and the Korean public.  So far it is not gaining much traction but as many people who have served in Korea in the past can tell you, it doesn’t take much to get people excited here, especially against the US.

As often is the case in Korea, politics and irrational nationalism rule the day and this could ultimately lead to a bitter divorce between the US and Korea.