By It is amazing that even this long after the Korean War unexploded bombs are still being found in the middle of Seoul:
Jongno Neighborhood in SeoulHundreds of residents and students in downtown Seoul were evacuated Monday while military personnel worked to remove an unexploded bomb apparently dropped during the 1950-53 Korean War, police said.
The police sealed off a 500-meter radius around the construction site of a high school in the city’s Jongno Ward after they were tipped off by a worker at the site, who found the 500-kilogram bomb while digging in the ground. [Yonhap]
I can remember a few years ago when an unexploded bomb was found on Camp Casey due to construction work going on around Gate 2. That didn’t surprise me much considering the rural area. However in the middle of Seoul you would think with all the construction over the years there these things would have all been uncovered by now. Fortunately this one was uncovered without anyone getting hurt.
12:47 am on November 4th, 2008 1
I think there may be quite a few left hidden in the Chongno area. I remember a 500kg bomb being 'found' across the street from my place of work in central Chongno a couple of years ago. It was right under the sidewalk in front of the police station next to Tapkol park. They were tearing up the sidewalk to re-pave it when they discovered the monster lurking below. The police evacuated all of the surrounding buildings and sealed off the streets to a 300 metre radius (Yay…early finish!). The ROK Army bomb squad came in and dug it out.
I'm no engineer but I'm guessing that most of the buildings in that area (60s/70s era) do not sit on particularly deep foundations so it wouldn't surprise me if there are tons of other undiscovered munitions buried not so deep around there.