A vacated USFK facility is causing tension between the city of Paju and the Korean government:

The city of Paju is demanding South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense return land formerly used by the U.S. military to the community.

About 5,000 protesters gathered at Paju Stadium late last week to urge the ministry to follow through.

City spokesman Chae Ho-jin said the ministry had promised to sell what was once the U.S. Army’s Camp Greaves to the city for about $574,000 when U.S. Forces Korea closed it in 2004.

City officials had a number of plans for the area, including an ecology park and an international cultural exchange complex.

Instead, Chae said, the land has sat vacant.

Chae said ministry officials told the city that the land, just south of the Demilitarized Zone, is critical to strategic defense plans and they plan to keep it.

“We continue to raise our claim for the land against the military authority,” Chae said. “If Camp Greaves is so important in terms of the military strategy, why do they keep the camp vacant? It is nonsense.”  [Stars & Stripes]

For those that don’t know Camp Greaves sits North of the Imjim River and nearly adjacent to the DMZ as can be seen in the this Google Earth image:

The only reason I can see the city of Paju wanting this land is because possibly they want to turn it into some kind of tourist attraction since the old camp sits so close to the Dorasan Station and observatory.  I can’t imagine what else they would want to use that land for.

The claims by the national government that handing over the land to the city is security risk I find to be unfounded considering they have the Dorasan Station and observatory sitting near the camp plus the camp is not being used for anything anyway.

Plus weren’t all these camps polluted and a threat to the lives of all South Koreans to the point they have to wear anti-contamination suits just to set foot on the land anyway?