South Korean police say nearly 40 officers were injured during a rally opposing the ratification of the country’s free trade deal with the United States.

Hundreds of protesters have been staging near-daily demonstrations since the ruling party railroaded the U.S. trade deal last week. The protesters believe the deal favors Washington over South Korean workers.

About 2,200 people rallied in Seoul on Saturday evening. Police say some of them punched and kicked officers trying to disperse the crowd.

Police say the violence left 38 officers injured. Most of the injuries were minor, but it was the most police casualties at a single rally since June.

Protesters say they’re looking into whether police also used violence during the rally.  [Associated Press]

Look what they did to the Seoul police chief:

The chief of a Seoul district police station was assaulted over the weekend by protesters against South Korea’s free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S., police officials said Sunday.

Park Geon-chan, head of Jongno Police Station in central Seoul, was punched and kicked after getting surrounded by some 100 protesters near the Gwanghwamun area around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, officials said.

Officials at the Jongno station said some protesters tore away Park’s insignia on his left shoulder, while others stripped Park of his hat and broke his glasses.

Plainclothes officers escorted Park away from the protesters and he was treated for wounds at a nearby hospital.  [Yonhap]

This is outrageous but I am sure these anti-US thugs will receive little if any punishment for this.

South Korea and the U.S. will discuss introducing new guidelines on investigating American soldiers suspected of crimes in a meeting of the South Korea-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement Joint Committee.

In the meeting slated for Wednesday, Seoul will ask Washington to “positively consider” South Korean investigative authorities’ request to transfer American suspects accused of crimes into the custody of the South before indictment.

The new guidelines will be similar to those that the U.S. and Japan agreed to after a rape case involving a U.S. soldier in Okinawa in 1995. After the rape case, the U.S. agreed to “favorably consider” handing over suspects accused of heinous crimes to Japan before they have been indicted.   [KBS Global]

I long ago showed the problems with the anti-US activists complaints about the US-ROK SOFA and I am still awaiting for one person to point out an example of a crime committed by a GI off duty and the USFK refused to hand him over?  The anti-US activists keep complaining about GI’s getting away with crimes and can’t point out a specific example of when this happened.

37-year-old office worker Mr. A went to Itaewon last weekend for an office dinner when he was shocked by what he saw in the street.

A foreigner and a Korean woman were sitting in a corner on the sidewalk, embracing each other so heavily it was as if they were having sex. Mr. A said: “I had thought I was going to see the Itaewon of the past, and to have to see that shocking scene made my co-workers feel awkward…. I had the thought that Itaewon has changed so much in just a few years.”

The atmosphere in Itaewon has changed drastically in the past few years. The change is the consequence of the increasing number of foreign tourists, but is also because of the increased number of US soldiers. Local office worker Mr. B said that “since a year ago when the curfew on US soldiers was lifted, the streets are something you don’t want to look at, and you frequently see foreigners talking loudly or having an argument.” [Korea Beat]

Read the rest at the link, but that is (sarcasm on) some pretty scare stuff foreigners talking loudly and arguing on the street. You never see that in Korea.(sarcasm off)

Robert Koehler who lives in Itaewon says he hasn’t really seen any difference in Itaewon with GI’s. Likewise when I spent some time in Itaewon earlier this summer it seemed like Itaewon was actually getting fixed up and less rowdy.

Anyway ROK Heads may remember how SBS a few months ago tried to push the evil GI’s in Itaewon meme claiming increased crime. However, they didn’t mention that overall crime has increased the past few years because USFK allowed servicemembers to drive cars.

Anyway the English teachers in Korea should be thankful for all of this because now the Korean media focus is back on GI’s instead of English teachers. Like I have always said the Korean media shifts focus regularly from GI’s, to English teachers, to 3D workers. This is just the continuation of this cycle. After a few months it will likely shift to 3D workers unless an English teacher does something really outrageous to shift it back to them.

Two mid-ranking police officers have been disciplined for failing to protect the U.S. ambassador to Seoul from demonstrators during a public event held in Seoul earlier this week, police said Friday.

The disciplined officers, whose identities were withheld, are accused of failing to stop a group of anti-American protesters from throwing plastic bottles at the car carrying U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Kathleen Stephens. The incident happened as Stephens was leaving a ceremony to celebrate the unveiling of a statue of former South Korean president Syngman Rhee in central Seoul on Thursday, police said.

Stephens was not injured in the incident.Two mid-ranking police officers have been disciplined for failing to protect the U.S. ambassador to Seoul from demonstrators during a public event held in Seoul earlier this week, police said Friday.

The disciplined officers, whose identities were withheld, are accused of failing to stop a group of anti-American protesters from throwing plastic bottles at the car carrying U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Kathleen Stephens. The incident happened as Stephens was leaving a ceremony to celebrate the unveiling of a statue of former South Korean president Syngman Rhee in central Seoul on Thursday, police said.

Stephens was not injured in the incident.  [Yonhap]

There was a S. Korean Nuclear Scientist who studied in America. Supposedly he died in a car accident in America when he was about to make a nuclear bomb for Korea. During the 70′s this incident was reported all over Korean newspapers. Anyone have any information about this?

The scientist died in 1977 – which brings up some interesting trains of thought:  that was after Park Chung-Hee had firmly established the continuation of his rule after the earlier changes in the South Korean constitution – called the Yusin period.

It was also immediately around the time President Carter tried to fulfill a campaign promise to remove all US troops from South Korea.

There isn’t much at that the link above, but it sums up what I was told about the case when the students would explain why South Korean society disliked the US “interference” in Korean society and wanted USFK out (but not just right now, I eventually discovered).

It wasn’t something I heard brought up nearly as much the idea US soldiers are "never” held accountable for the many bad crimes they commit in Korea each year but just fly away home.  (GI Korea has done a good job covering this issue.  By the way, the first time GIs were found guilty in a Korean court was 1968…)  But it did seem to be a widely believed truth.

Today, I googled and found out a highly likely reason why this myth was in their minds back then:

Some months ago I was reading Kim Chinmyŏng’s bestseller The Mugunghwa blossoms(무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다, 1993). When this alternative historical novel came out it quickly sold around 4 million copies. And indeed, for Koreans the story must be an entertaining read.

In this novel, an investigation into the death/murder of the scientist by evil forces leads to the peaceful unification of the peninsula, I guess as North and South unite against their true common enemy:

Meanwhile Japan is trying hard to keep Korea from unifying, since they feel threatened by the vast economic power Korea might then become. In the end Japan sees no other way but to destroy Korea’s economic facilities and start a war.

Read the whole of link, because it covers the case far more than I know:

The story itself was based on the life of scientist Yi Hwiso who indeed died because of a car accident in 1977. A huge debate arose between the writer and family members of Yi Hwiso on the way his life was depicted in the book. In the novel Yi was working together with Park Chunghee on establishing a Korean nuclear program, however in reality Yi was very critical of Park’s dictatorship rule.

What I do know is that in the late 1990s, this “evidence” was brought up more than once as part of the list of reasons South Korean society didn’t like the US-SK relationship and USFK.

The man’s English name was Benjamin Lee.  In Korean it is 이휘소 for any with Korean language skills (unlike myself) who want to look up info.

The post quoted above goes on to say last year KBS did a documentary to explore the facts and fictions about this death.  It doesn’t tell which way the piece leaned.  Maybe someone with Korean language skills will check it out.

Hopefully, it moved viewers away from the idea the CIA murdered the man to prevent South Korea from getting The Bomb – which is what I was told happened back in the late 1990s…

Also SBS did get some basic facts wrong which is nothing new in the Korean media.  They mention that crimes by American Soldiers increased by 15%, but don’t tell you what the increase in crime was from.  Was it from traffic related incidents which has been the biggest increase in USFK crime in recent years after the driving ban was lifted? SBS than makes the claim that assault, rape, and theft are up which is partially incorrect.  In 2010, assault and theft were up in Korea overall, but not the more serious crime of rape.  There was in fact no rape convictions in 2010.  If a reporter is going to make such claims than statistics with a source should be given so it can be verified.  I had to really laugh at the claim that GI’s lay down where ever they want.  Does this SBS reporter ever ride the subway?  I have seen drunk Koreans completely passed out taking up whole seats or lying on the ground on the subway or in the subway stations.  This is not something representative of Koreans in general just a few drunken idiots, just like a GI laying down in Itaewon is not representative of all USFK servicemembers.

Must be a Korean Presidential election coming up.  I wonder when the next Dokdo flare up will happen?

You can read more about this topic over at the Marmot’s Hole.

Captain America will keep its patriotic full title in most of the world when the superhero adventure hits the big-screen.

Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios gave distributors around the world the option of shortening the title of “Captain America: The First Avenger” to simply “The First Avenger,” out of concern about anti-American sentiment.

But the only countries that took them up on it were Russia, Ukraine and South Korea.  [Associated Press]

In China they are still debating whether to even allow the showing of the movie.  What I don’t get is that why would anyone who is anti-American even watch the movie considering the hero is literally wearing the American flag no matter what it is called?

Also South Korea’s decision to use the alternate name has gotten plenty of the commenters at the link riled up considering the ROK is a US ally.

I wish I had the Korean language skills to do a search of the Korean-language version of the papers justice, but given this volume of coverage in their sister English-language papers, I am sure the coverage is significant.  This is seeping into the groundwater of the Korean public’s mind — which is how the society gets prepped for the next big spike in street level (often violent) protests:

You would not have relatively minor issues or isolated events explode into a period of protests with 5,000-10,000+ average Korean participants without this type of periodic negative media pounding…

I’ll be collecting quotes from Korean media sources on the pollution stories.  I’ll be updating this as I go.  Korea Herald links will go dead in time as articles move to the pay-per-view archives.

I consider this a “spike” in anti-USFK activity — the kind I define as the “office water-cooler” variety.

Koreans pay attention to the news more than Americans, and when I taught Korean adults, I could tell what was going on in the Korean press by what class after class wanted to talk about, and I would see mirror articles in the English-language versions of the newspapers.

1 class a week was always for Free Talking where students picked the topics.  I also tried to give 10 minutes at the end of each class to open topics.  I learned a lot about Korea that way.

There is no way this amount of media coverage on the agent orange claims are not having an impact among the average audience member.

It reinforces the many years of similar coverage that was a regular feature of the Korean press until the last few years.  You used to run into a cluster of saturated USFK Pollutor coverage about once a year.

Now, with the election coming next year, we are seeing it again.

Many of the Joongang Daily and Donga Daily articles come with Korean-language versions immediately under them.  The Korean versions usually run in the parent newspapers and then translated for the sister English-language paper.

You will not find clusters of news coverage like this focusing on specific larger Korean companies or the Korean military.  You can find environmental coverage, but you don’t find them naming names, unless it involves small businesses or some major government project like land reclamation, and then you will not see it pumped out at this rate.

US whistleblower offers to visit Korea to testify on Agent Orange (Donga Ilbo 14 June 2011)

Ex-U.S. soldier ‘got orders on dioxin’ (Korea Herald 13 June 2011)

Amid confirmation that the U.S. military dumped toxic chemicals on Korean soil in 1978, a new testimony has surfaced, saying that orders were given to remove all supplies of dioxins in Korea around the same time.

“I was given orders, probably general orders to all units as well, to remove all remaining supplies of dioxin from warehouses throughout all the 2nd Division,” said Larry Anderson, a former U.S. soldier with the 2ID from 1977-1978.

The testimony further escalates the nation’s already heightened fear of toxic contamination, especially those living near former and current United States Forces Korea installations.

If you look for pollution stories involving Korean corporations, good luck finding this much coverage and concern…

Anderson, stationed at Camp Mercer in 1968 and along the DMZ in 1977-1978, posted the testimony on the “Korean War Project” a website for former U.S. Forces Korea Troops, and said the same in a 1999 interview with The Korea Herald.

“AO (Agent Orange) was widely, much more than reported, used (in Korea),” said Anderson.

He went to describe how Agent Orange was sprayed several times all over Camp Mercer including around buildings, latrines and even mess halls, to “kill vegetation.”

…In a 1991 report posted by journalist, An Chi-yong, on his website “Secret of Korea,” the U.S. Army engineer corps said that Camp Caroll was the biggest producer of harmful waste, including used oil, solvent, paint and batteries.

Civic group urges investigation of all U.S. bases (Korea Herald 12 June 2011)

Korea Herald links will go dead over time due to their pay-per-view archives system.

Also, whenever the Korean media wants to pump up public angst over a pollution or other story involving USFK or the US Embassy, they give primary place of importance in the coverage to one or more of the plethora of anti-US groups that are CONSTANTLY seeking media attention over any and every thing they think might make Koreans angry.  Below are the lead paragraphs:

Provincial governments are moving to verify whether areas near U.S. military facilities are contaminated amid heightened public worries over the alleged burial of Agent Orange at Camp Carroll in Waegwan, North Gyeongsang Province.

Some environmentalists and activists criticized the U.S. military for being overly “slow and careful” in conducting its investigation into its facilities in question. They also called on it to disclose records of its past environmental inspections at its bases.

Gyeonggi Province is at the forefront of the moves to check whether water and soil around U.S. installations are polluted with toxic substances.

…

Chuncheon, Gangwon Province has asked the Defense Ministry to conduct another investigation at an ex-U.S. base called Camp Page, where some retired American soldiers claimed Agent Orange was buried. It said the initial probe failed to address its worries about chemical contamination.

Last week, an alliance of some 80 civic groups stressed that an environmental survey of all U.S. military facilities should be carried out to alleviate public concerns over the defoliant, which is known to cause cancer, neural disorders and fetal deformities.

The only thing close to a comment from USFK comes near the end of the article:

The U.S. military here said they transported chemical substances they stored in Area 41 to Area D, and that they dug out some 40-60 tons of contaminated soil and chemicals in Area D and disposed of them from 1979-80.

And is capped off with the typical SOFA closing theme:

The current SOFA rules state that the U.S. government shall confirm its policy to “respect” ― rather than “observe” ― South Korea’s relevant environmental laws, regulations and standards.

Another allegation of Agent Orange at U.S. base (Joongang Ilbo 11 June 2011)

Contaminated Groundwater Drained from Near U.S. Bases (Chosun Ilbo 8 June 2011)

Underground Water Pollution Serious Near US Bases in Seoul (Korea Times 7 June 2011)

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday that it has removed about 2,000 tons of oil-contaminated underground water around U.S. Army bases in the capital area over the last decade.

568 liters of floating oil and 1,970 tons of polluted underground water have been extracted since 2001 near two U.S. camps in central Seoul ― Yongsan Garrison and Camp Kim.

The revelation came amid growing public anxiety over the alleged burial of toxic defoliant in Camp Carroll in North Gyeongsang Province in the 1970s by the U.S. Army.

…“The water contained harmful chemicals including benzene, toluene and xylene. We suspect pollutants within the bases are expanding beyond the camp sites after dissolving in rainwater,” the official said.

I would love to see someone fund environmental studies of soil and groundwater pollution around Seoul away from US military bases…

Pollutants found in drainage water from Yongsan Garrison (Korea Herald 7 June 2011)

This is called – Piling On.  It often happens when a new US-related pollution issue comes up in the Korean media.  This Yongsan story has been around for years.  And pretty much around any US or Korean military base or factory area, you are going to find pollution.  Pretty much around any significant Korean city, you’re going to find pollution.  So, ANY time the Korean media wants to pump out these USFK Polluters!! stories, it can…

Pollutants remain in drainage water from a central Seoul U.S. military base, despite the capital pumping nearly 2,000 tons of contaminated water since 2001, city officials said on Tuesday.

These pollution stories were out in 2001.  It was also a time period in which the selection process of Korea’s “FX Fighter Place”, and the American F-15s chance in winning the contract (which is did), was also grabbing headlines month-to-month.  This all continued into 2002 – but came to an abrupt halt just before the World Cup when lots of foreign reporters showed up in Korea.  Once they had left, the media and society exploded over the tragic crushing death of two middle school girls by a USFK armored vehicle.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, officials are still finding the water polluted with oil and other chemicals in the drainage system flowing from the Yongsan Garrison. However U.S. army officials claim that they finished a massive cleanup in 2006, regarding the areas in question near Noksapyeong Station and Camp Kim.

Separately, the capital pumped some 128 liters of oil floating on the underground water systems, and roughly 1,870 tons of contaminated water since 2001 in the vicinity of Noksapyeong Station and the U.S. Eighth Army base, officials said.

“We need to perform a cleanup operation on the source of the problem within the U.S. army base, but because we do not have free access to the area we are simply pumping out polluted water from the surrounding area,” an official said.

The city was able to recover some 3,766 million won through a suit against the government for the cleanup cost from 2001 to 2008, “We plan to pump polluted water through holes drilled around the U.S. army base,” said a city official, adding that preventing pollutants from entering the Han River was their main focus.

The U.S. Eighth Army declined to comment on the matter.

Gyeonggi Provice to Carry Out Inspections of US Bases on its Own (Korea Times 5 June 2011)

The Gyeonggi Provincial Government said Sunday that it will conduct an investigation into areas around 28 U.S. military camps in the province to check whether soil and underground waters have been contaminated with dioxin and other harmful chemicals.

“To conduct an inspection inside the U.S. camps, we need to consult with the U.S. military in accordance with the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which will take quite a long time.

So, we decided to look into areas surrounding U.S. bases, which we can inspect independently,’’ a provincial official said.

The Gyeonggi Institute of Health and Environment, affiliated with the regional government, will begin an inspection as early as the middle of this month when the ongoing probe into Camp Mercer in Bucheon is expected to end.

“We will start looking into areas surrounding U.S. military camps as soon as we complete the ongoing investigation into Camp Mercer. Initially, we had planned to conduct the inquiry in cooperation with Ministry of Environment.

But due to growing public concerns over possible environmental contamination, we decided to launch the probe as early as possible,’’ said a researcher at the institute.

U.S. Kept Agent Orange at Another Camp in Korea (Chosun Ilbo 7 June 2011)

Well, since they used it at the DMZ, chances are pretty good it was kept in Korea.

Over 100 Kinds of Chemicals Dumped at Camp Carroll (Chosun Ilbo 6 June 2011)

Area D in Camp Carroll in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province was used as a landfill for more than 100 kinds of hazardous and toxic materials between 1977 and 1982, it emerged Friday.

You could do mountains of articles like this – about USFK, the Korean military, and Korean corporations – if you wanted.  They just only seem to want to when it comes to one of them…

In 1982-1983, large amounts of chemicals and contaminated soil were dug up again and put into 55-gallon (approximately 208-liter) drums, but where they were disposed of is not known. Contaminated residues could still remain at the site, the report says.

Outcome of defoliant probe expected late June (Korea Herald 5 June 2011)

Mobilizing ground-penetrating radars and electrical resistivity devices, the team will continue their inspection in the helipad until June 21. As of Friday, it completed some 25 percent of the GPR survey in the helipad.

GPR radars are to help verify what is underground while electrical resistivity devices are used to survey the areas that the radars cannot penetrate, officials explained.

Along with the helipad, the team will also inspect “Area D,” a swath of land reportedly used as a “hazardous waste landfill” from 1977-1982. The inspection of the area will begin on Wednesday next week and continue until July 7.

…

The U.S. military here said they transported chemical substances they stored in Area 41 to Area D, and that they dug out some 40-60 tons of contaminated soil and chemicals in Area D and disposed of them from 1979-80.

Lt. Gen. John D Johnson, commander of the Eighth U.S. Army, told the environment minister last week that drums of chemicals ― excavated from Area D ― were transported to areas outside Korea from 1979-80.

“Our investigation is being carried out at a slow pace, but we think it is better to safely and accurately conduct it,” said a member of the probe team, declining to be named.

‘Agent Orange sprayed over DMZ in 1968-69’ (Korea Herald (Yonhap) 3 June 2011)

Probe carried out inside Camp Carroll (Joongang Daily 3 June 2011)

“I want to make clear: if there’s any health risk, we will clean that up,” John D. Johnson, commanding general of the 8th U.S. Army and lead investigator on the U.S. side, said at the base yesterday.

Quote comes in the middle of the article and without any damning counter-quote from an anti-USFK NGO leader or grandstanding National Assembly member.

On-site inspection begins inside Camp Carroll (Korea Times 2 June 2011)

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced it will conduct a separate investigation in the areas around U.S. military camps in Seoul to check for environmental pollution, following allegations that it is at a worrisome level at many facilities here.

“As it is now alleged that various toxic chemicals including Agent Orange were buried in Camp Carroll, the city government has also decided to check environment pollution levels around U.S. military bases in Seoul,” an official said.

…Meanwhile, 50 civic groups including the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and Green Korea United launched a special team to look into the recent allegations.

The team will open a call center to hear testimony from those who took part in spraying defoliants in the past. Member groups also plan to stage a protest, demanding the government and the U.S. military take necessary steps to provide compensation.

Joint surveys of soil, underground water at Camp Carroll to begin (Donga Ilbo 2 June 2011)

He made the comments in a briefing for Korean Environment Minister Yoo Young-sook, who

visited the camp in the township of Waegwan in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang Province. Fox

also said ground-penetrating radar and water quality surveys can pinpoint the exact location of

sites where soil analysis should be conducted, adding that if harmful substances are found, U.S.

forces will perform clean-up work.

Seoul City plans probe on U.S. bases in capital (Korea Herald 2 June 2011)

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will launch its own inspection into environmental contamination near U.S. military bases in the city, officials said Thursday.

In a meeting of senior officials, the city decided to carry out a special investigation into the underground water in the areas adjacent to U.S. camps from June 6 to the end of the month.

A total of 12 U.S. military camps are based in Seoul. Of them, 10 are under the jurisdiction of the city, while two others are under the Defense Ministry.

The city, together with Research Institute of Public Health and Environment, will take samples from underground water in the 10 areas, including six in Yongsan-gu, to verify whether there are any toxic chemicals such as pesticides and dioxins.

The city has examined water quality more than twice a year and has not found any abnormalities in the past five years, officials said.

No confirmation buried chemicals removed (Korea Herald 2 June 2011)

A U.S. Army commander told South Korean officials on Thursday that there was no confirmation that chemicals were removed from Camp Carroll, contrary to earlier statements that herbicides were disposed offsite.

Earlier in the month, Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson, commander of the Eighth U.S. Army and head of the Joint Investigation Team, cited a 1992 report that surveyed soldiers stationed at Camp Carroll.

The report said that drums containing pesticides, herbicides and solvents were buried in 1978 and subsequently removed and disposed “offsite” up until 1980.

But according to USFK officials, they have yet to find any official records of the orders given to remove the materials, but have “reason to believe” that something was buried there and subsequently removed.

…

Water samples will be extracted by a company outsourced by the USFK and samples will be divided among Korean and U.S. officials for individual analysis. Both countries will reconvene with the results.

The two areas where the investigation started were named by Steve House and two other former U.S. soldiers stationed at Camp Carroll in 1978 in an interview with local U.S. news. Their claims that they had buried Agent Orange there caused a string of allegations from other whistleblowers to follow.

Korean officials are also looking to review the reports from 1992 and 2004 that the U.S. used as a reference during earlier briefings this month. The two U.S. military reports said that various chemicals were buried in 1978 but removed two years after, and that only trace levels of dioxins were found in the vicinity.

In light of the investigation, a local environmental organization said officials needed to prepare safety precautions should there be an accident during the investigation of the “most poisonous substance man has created.”

Some local officials and residents believe that Agent Orange is just the tip of the iceberg, saying that the U.S. military buried various toxic waste for other 30 years up until 1987.

Exposure to the herbicide, especially a component called dioxin, has been known to cause birth defects, neural illnesses and leukemia among other illnesses. More than 33,000 South Koreans who participated in the Vietnam War suffered from the after effects of exposure to the chemical.

The claims and statements from the anti-US NGOs comes at the bottom of the article.  Placement often tips off just how much the media wants the issue to grow among the general public.

USFK ‘Disposed of Dumped Chemicals Overseas’ (Chosun Ilbo 2 June 2011)

Eighth U.S. Army Commander Lt. Gen. John Johnson told new Environment Minister Yoo Young-sook, who visited Camp Carroll Wednesday, that the contaminated materials buried in Area D was removed from Korea, Yoo told the Chosun Ilbo. But Johnson pledged to check whether there remains any contamination at the camp. U.S. veterans said earlier they buried the lethal defoliant Agent Orange at the camp.

Yoo said Johnson looked unconvinced that the contaminated materials had really been taken overseas, but was only reporting statements from those who worked at the camp at that time.

Calls for SOFA Revision (Korea Times 1 June 2011)

Amid allegations of the dumping of toxic chemicals by the U.S. military here, civic groups and experts are mounting calls for a revision to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) to allow for more independent and effective investigation into environment-related incidents involving the U.S. military here.

“The issue of Agent Orange is actually just a small part of environmental pollution by the U.S. military stationed here,” said Kim Hye-jin, an official from Green Korea United. “The problem, as we see now, is we don’t have the right to take preventive measures against environmental pollution inside camps, investigate any allegations involving the U.S. military and demand proper compensation, due to SOFA.”

She argued that one of the biggest problems regarding SOFA is it prevents access to necessary information, records and research data to monitor the environment inside camps. “No one knows what’s happening inside the camps. It is often said a lot of oil and toxic chemicals are buried there, polluting the area seriously.”

Any time Green Korea is given the opening paragraphs of an article, you know where the reporter and editor’s politics lie.

“SOFA should be revised to be interpreted in clear ways with clear clauses, which can prevent further pollution inside camps,” said Jang Kyung-wook, a lawyer from the Lawyers for a Democratic Society.

As an example of ambiguity, he cited a clause saying the U.S. military will promptly undertake to remedy contamination caused by the U.S. Armed Forces in Korea that poses a “known, imminent and substantial endangerment” to human health.

“The expressions can be interpreted flexibly by the U.S. military, allowing them to avoid any responsibility,” Jang said. “SOFA also emphasizes the importance of environmental consultation between the two parties, but the problem is the Korean government which lacks negotiation skills always ends up disadvantaged in the discussions with the U.S. military.”

Other experts also argue the revision or at least a small additional amendment to the current SOFA can make Korean investigation teams’ job much easier and effective.

“The procedure should be, you need to first find out the source of pollution and to see how it affects things,” said Lee Sang-hun, a professor of the environmental engineering department at the Catholic University of Korea. “But when it comes to the investigation of U.S. military camps here, we’re not allowed to check inside camps. In most cases, we check soil and water outside camps to see how polluted substances from camps have affected neighboring areas and the environment without knowing where it came from.”

…Many lawmakers also raised their voice for a revision of what they call “unfair” SOFA.

“Our understanding on the environment has drastically changed with stricter regulations over the past decade,” Rep. Song Min-soon of the main opposition Democratic Party, said. “To reflect all the changes, SOFA should be revised.”

Seoul and Washington should come up with measures to satisfy Koreans here regarding the alleged dumping of toxic chemicals, he said, adding the revision should not hurt the relationship between the two allies.

U.S. Military ‘Has Records of Agent Orange at Camp Carroll’ (Chosun Ilbo 31 May 2011)

A U.S. military document from the early 1990s confirms the dumping of the lethal defoliant Agent Orange in the grounds of Camp Carroll in Chilgok, South Gyeongsang Province, KBS News reported Monday. The broadcaster said the report notes that drums of Agent Orange were buried under a baseball field inside the U.S. military base.

The U.S. Forces Korea have denied the existence of any records of the dumping.

But the document “contained information that the defoliant Agent Orange was buried under Area HH in Camp Carroll during the Vietnam War and was removed later,” KBS said.

Controversy over when U.S. sprayed defoliants in Korea continues (Korea Herald 31 May 2011)

A Korea-U.S. probe team on Tuesday began taking soil samples just outside Camp Carroll, a U.S. base in Waegwan, North Gyeongsang Province where a considerable amount of Agent Orange was allegedly buried in 1978.

A separate investigation team also kicked off its first basic onsite inspection at the now-defunct Camp Mercer in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province where a former U.S. soldier alleged that “every imaginable chemical” was buried in the 1960s.

The investigations started with Seoul and Washington hoping to ease rising public outrage over the allegations by a series of former U.S. troops that chemicals including the toxic defoliant were buried at some of the U.S. military installations here.

…

Some here have also clamored for the revision of the Status of Forces Agreement to ameliorate the environmental rules in it to hold the U.S. strictly responsible for its military’s possible environmental pollution here.

The joint team consisting of some 20 people including Environment Ministry officials and U.S. military personnel gathered soil samples from an education and culture center close to Camp Carroll.

The team drilled exploratory holes at several points on the center premises until it reached the bedrock, and took soil samples there. For the next week, it plans to drill holes at 14 points near the camp.

The team also took water samples at six locations including Dongjeong Stream and Nakdong River. The samples will be sent to the country’s environmental management corporation for analysis.

The probe team already sent underground water samples it had gathered at 10 points near the camp to several local universities, including Pohang University of Science and Technology, for analysis. The analysis result is likely to come this weekend, officials said.

For the investigation inside Camp Carroll, some observers say that Korean and U.S. investigators have differing views over how to verify whether the defoliant was buried at the site.

Korean officials believe that they should conduct a thorough investigation by drilling exploratory holes and taking soil and underground water samples there, while the U.S. side seems to prefer using only radar devices to check the possible burial of Agent Orange there, observers said.

…

Meanwhile, controversy has continued over when the U.S. sprayed toxic herbicides in South Korea with the revelation of a set of conflicting U.S. government records.

Both Seoul and Washington governments have said that the U.S. military had sprayed defoliants south of the Demilitarized Zone, the buffer zone dividing the two Koreas, from 1968-69 to more easily detect North Korean infiltrations into the South.

But a compensation document that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs sent to a myeloma patient in November 2009, who served as a USFK troop here, stated that Agent Orange, Agent Blue and Monuron were used in Korea from 1962-70.

Gov’t to Check Health of Residents Near Contaminated U.S. Base (Chosun Ilbo 30 May 2011)

The ministry will ask residents as early as this week about symptoms and then conduct blood and urine tests.

“We decided to investigate the effects on health as anxiety is mounting among residents because small traces of dioxin have been detected in groundwater outside Camp Carroll as well as in the soil inside the camp,” a government official said Sunday.

Joint study on defoliant at Camp Carroll to start this week (Donga Ilbo 30 May 2011)

Concern over relocation, chemical cleanup costs (Joongang Ilbo 30 May 2011)

As allegations of the clandestine disposal of harmful chemical materials by the U.S. in Korea are being watched with growing suspicion, concerns are being raised over the potential increasing environmental costs that Korea may have to bear in the planned relocation of U.S. military bases.

According to the Ministry of National Defense, 47 U.S. military bases have been returned to the Korean government since the two countries signed the Land Partnership Plan in 2002.

The studies conducted by the Ministry of Environment late last year showed most of the 47 bases returned since 2002 were contaminated with oil and heavy metal.

In Gyeonggi, all of the 12 returned bases – four in Uijeongbu, four in Paju, two in Dongducheon, one in Euiwang and one in the city of Hanam – were contaminated, the studies showed.

Eleven of the 12 bases recorded total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) over 2,000-miligrams per kilogram, a level that would ban those bases from being used even as a factory or parking lot.

Some sites within Camp Castle in Dongducheon even recorded levels of at least 19,284 milligrams per kilogram of TPH.

At Camp Hialeah in Busan, returned last year to Korea, nearly 10 percent of the base is contaminated with oil and heavy metal. Busan city authorities estimate that the city will have to spend 13 billion won ($11.9 million) to clean up the base.

As part of the relocation agreement, Korea would have to bear the cost of cleaning up the bases. And, experts say the cleanup cost could be higher if the environmental contamination turns out to be even more serious than initially thought.

In March, the Ministry of National Defense estimated the cost of the relocation at 8.89 trillion won, up 3.3 trillion from the amount approved by the National Assembly in 2004.

Major survey of U.S. bases by Korea (Joongang Ilbo 30 May 2011)

More than 110,000 Koreans suffer from defoliant ills (Korea Herald 30 May 2011)

More than 110,000 Koreans have been suffering from the aftereffects of exposure to toxic defoliants, the Ministry of Veterans and Patriots Affairs said Sunday.

The latest data, collected in March, has fanned public concern amid recent allegations that the U.S. Army buried a large amount of Agent Orange in one of its camps in southeastern Korea three decades ago.

According to the ministry, 23,405 war veterans and former civilian employees in the army were compensated by the government for their defoliant aftereffects, while 52,848 others received benefits for “suspected” cases.

Another 36,582 beneficiaries had symptoms that the ministry recognized as associated with exposure to the toxic defoliant, though not directly. And there were also 57 children who became ill due to their parents’ exposure to the chemical.

Under the current law, which is to expire in Dec. 21 next year, eligibility for compensation claims over the toxic herbicides is given to those who participated in the Vietnam War between 1964 and 1973 or worked in the areas near the Southern Limit Line between two Koreas from 1967 to 1970.

U.S. Army sprayed defoliant over DMZ in 1955: ex-soldier (Korea Herald 30 May 2011)

Civic groups to demand information from U.S. army on toxic releases (Korea Herald (Yonhap) 29 May 2011)

A group of civic groups in South Korea said Sunday they will file a petition demanding the U.S. military release detailed information on its past discharge of toxic chemicals here.

The civic groups, including People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, disputed the credibility of the investigation and said they will promptly move to obtain information through a petition.

“The U.S. military does not appear to be providing precise information, and we’re afraid people’s interest in the issue may drop if things continue this way,” an official at Green Korea United said.

Early this week, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said a 1992 study showed a “large amount” of pesticides, herbicides and solvents were buried at Camp Carroll in 1978, but were removed and taken to an unknown site during the following two years.

The USFK also said its review of records found “trace amounts” of dioxin in a 2004 test at the site, but the findings do not “directly” indicate that Agent Orange was buried there.

More toxic dumping seen at Carroll (Joongang Ilbo 28 May 2011)

As Washington and Seoul began their first joint investigation into reports that large amounts of Agent Orange were buried at Camp Carroll in 1978, a new claim has surfaced that toxic materials were buried there years earlier.

Ku Ja-yeong, a 72-year-old former employee at Camp Carroll, told a group of Washington correspondents that he buried toxic chemicals near the base in 1972.

“In 1972, I used a bulldozer to dig 30 feet below the ground near the Bachelor Officers Quarters and an area in front of a fire station located on the base.” Ku told correspondents on Thursday, “and similar amounts of toxic materials were buried at the two sites. My American boss buried them.”

Ku said each hole was the size of a tennis court. “I wasn’t sure exactly what was being buried, but I heard my colleagues say, ‘They must be toxic chemicals left over from Vietnam.’”

Gov’t Mulls SOFA Revision After Agent Orange Claims (Chosun Ilbo 27 May 2011)

“The Foreign Ministry will look to supplement or revise the current SOFA if we feel that it is insufficient or lacks environmental provisions in resolving the Agent Orange issue,” ministry spokesman Cho Byung-je said Thursday.

More Trace Amounts of Dioxin Found Near U.S. Base (Chosun Ilbo 27 May 2011)

Korea, U.S. Start Joint Probe of Chemical Dumping Claims (Chosun Ilbo 27 May 2011)

U.S. to use radar to look for chemicals (Joongang Ilbo 27 May 2011)

Kim Man-koo, an environmental science professor at Kangwon University, told the media yesterday that his analysis of subterranean water at Camp Carroll, commissioned by a Seoul contractor in May 2003, discovered many cancer-causing chloride compounds in the water.

An Incheon-based civic group claimed yesterday that U.S. troops disposed of harmful chemicals at Camp Market in Incheon, raising the number of U.S. bases suspected of chemical disposal to three. On Tuesday, U.S. veteran Ray Bows claimed on an Internet site that Camp Mercer in Bucheon, Gyeonggi, which is now under the control of South Korea, was the burial site of “hundreds of gallons” of “every imaginable chemical” between 1963 and 1964.

In the Camp Market case, the Incheon office of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement cited a USFK report in 1991 as saying Camp Market disposed of harmful materials, including 10 pounds of mercury, 2,580 pounds of asbestos and 448 drums of transformer oil, at the site in 1987.

The growing number of revelations “shows that it was not a decision made [by] a mere military unit,” the civic group said in a statement, calling for a joint investigation by South Korea and the U.S. into what it called “environmental crimes” at Camp Market. So far, the USFK said it would investigate only Camp Carroll.

`Camp Carroll defoliants moved to U.S. Army base in Incheon` (Donga Ilbo 26 May 2011)

Korean military sources said Thursday that chemicals buried under Camp Carroll, a U.S. military

base in North Gyeongsang Province, are likely to have been moved to the Defense Reutilization and

Marketing Office (DRMO) at Camp Market in Incheon.

“The DRMO, which is under direct supervision by the U.S. Defense Department, has collected and disposed of various types of scrapped materials and wastes from U.S. military bases in Korea for decades,” one source said. “The chemicals taken out of Camp Carroll were probably moved to this place (Camp Market) and were disposed of.”

Based on a 1992 report by the U.S. Army’s engineering corps, the 8th U.S. Army Command

announced Monday that the barrels containing the materials buried at Camp Carroll and 40 to 60

tons of dirt around the burial site were taken out of the base and disposed of at another place.

USFK to test soil at Camp Carroll next week in Agent Orange probe (Korea Herald (Yonhap) 26 May 2011)

Soil of Camp Carroll to be tested next week (Korea Times 26 May 2011)

U.S. to use radar in chemicals probe (Korea Herald 26 May 2011)

Stressing that all investigations into the case will be carried out jointly with the Korean government, the commander said that the joint probe team will see if there is any health risk as alleged by the former soldiers.

“It is very important that both U.S. and Korean governments are involved in every step (of the investigation). We conduct testing on a regular basis. If that testing tells us there is a risk to human health, then we do the things necessary to remove that risk,” he said.

…

Amid the allegations of toxic chemical contamination, local residents and environmentalists have been calling for a thorough investigation, with some expressing deep concerns that the reported dumping would seriously damage the image of their town and agricultural products grown there.

Another claim by a former USFK soldier that “every imaginable chemical” was dumped at Camp Mercer in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, in the 1960s, has further shocked the public, some of whom have called for a full-scale environmental inspection of all U.S. facilities here.

The anti-US groups are not quoted until the end of the article:

Environmentalists say that although the allies established environment-related rules in the pact in 2001, the “abstract, vaguely-worded” regulations that do not specify any compensation in case of environmental contamination by U.S. troops here, are not effective.

The rules state that the U.S. government confirms its policy to “respect” ― rather than “observe” ― South Korea’s relevant environmental laws, regulations and standards.

According to the Ministry of National Defense, from 1990 to May 2003, the U.S. military had not conducted any environmental surveys on 85 U.S. military facilities before they returned the sites to South Korea.

The direct quotes from USFK comes early in the article.

No Environmental Checks Carried Out at Former U.S. Facilities (Chosun Daily 26 May 2011)

The government failed to conduct environmental damage assessments at 113 U.S. military bases that were returned to Korea between 1990 to 2004, a Defense Ministry official admitted Wednesday.

“According to a special agreement on environmental protection under the Status of Forces Agreement in 2001, the U.S. military has no obligation to clean up environmental pollution at installations returned to Korea before 2005, and we had no authority to investigate them,” the official said. “As a result, we could not conduct any environmental damage assessments on 113 U.S. bases that were returned until 2004, and to my knowledge no such assessment took place after their handover.”

Altogether 191 U.S. military installations have either been returned to Korea or will be returned. Forty-six have been handed back since 2005, and 32 more are left.

Chemical dumping claims growing (Joongang Ilbo 26 May 2011)

A local civic group raised more suspicions yesterday when it issued a statement claiming Korean civilians were mobilized by the U.S. to spread defoliants within the DMZ in the late 1960s and early 1970s to clear the view of North Korean territory.

Green Korea United cited a Korean resident near the DMZ, who claimed to have been mobilized in 1971. He said they spread Monuron, another type of defoliant, in the DMZ under the guidance of U.S. troops.

The civic group said the civilians spread the defoliants manually after being told it was a weed killer. The resident it quoted said he has been suffering from asthma since 1971. Photographs of sacks of supposed defoliants were posted on Green Korea United’s Web site.

Jeff Buczkowski, the U.S. 8th Army spokesman, dismissed the new allegations as “speculation,” in a telephone interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily yesterday. He said the U.S. is focused on the allegations of Agent Orange being buried at Camp Carroll.

“All U.S. military bases in Korea should be investigated for illegal chemical dumping,” said Kim Hye-jin, an activist with Green Korea United.

She said such illegal acts by USFK can only be addressed through a revision of the U.S.-ROK Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

Voices calling for a revision of SOFA regularly rise when anti-U.S. sentiment swells on reports of USFK wrongdoing, such as in 2002, when two Korean girls were killed by a U.S. armored vehicle.

Is the Korea-U.S. SOFA Truly Comfortable? (Chosun Daily 26 May 2011)

One of the reasons for Song’s confidence was the creation of a new clause on Korea’s environmental rights. The agreement says the U.S. will “respect” Korea’s environmental regulations. And for the first time since it was inked back in 1966, a separate memorandum of understanding was also signed requiring the two sides to strengthen environmental protection rules every two years. “Japan settled merely for a statement signed by the foreign ministers of both countries, which is not legally binding, but we created a legal clause,” Song said proudly at that time.

But environmental groups said the environmental clause contains only generalities and is devoid of specifics, and that when environmental contamination by the USFK surfaces, it will not be easy to take legal measures. They said the revision leaves Korea at the mercy of America’s goodwill, and fails to state clearly what type of compensation is to be made. It is only natural for critics to raise these problems again after revelations that the lethal defoliant Agent Orange was buried at Camp Carroll in 1978.

One environmental group claims that contamination issues have surfaced at around 50 U.S. military installations in Korea since 2000, when the USFK started returning them to Korea. And on Tuesday, claims emerged that toxic chemicals were also buried at Camp Mercer in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province.

Koreans have become highly sensitive to environmental issues over the past 10 years. It would be advisable for the U.S. to at least respect the environmental regulations of the host country.

It has been more than 40 years since the Korea-U.S. SOFA was signed, but there have only been two revisions so far. More and more Koreans feel that a SOFA that is truly comfortable for them would propel bilateral relations to a higher level.

USFK standards, even back decades, have been significantly higher than the cooresponding ones from the Korean government.  Something that never — never — comes up in these many articles whenever a USFK/U.S. Embassy Pollution Spike in news coverage happens.

USFK Chief Throws Weight Behind Agent Orange Probe (Chosun Ilbo 25 May 2011)

A government source on Tuesday said Sharp “has been meeting with one senior Korean military officer after another” since the scandal broke last week. “He said it is a serious matter not only for Koreans but U.S. servicemen if the dioxin-based chemical was really buried at Camp Carroll, where U.S. servicemen still live and work.”

The U.S. agreed to a joint probe “unprecedentedly promptly and took the initiative to disclose relevant documents, apparently because they are worried about a resurgence of anti-American sentiment in Korea as well as the safety of the Korean people and U.S. servicemen,” the source added.

The type of cooperation mentioned in the news is the same I’ve found in every one of these pollution cases I’ve researched going back to the late 1980s.

Plot Thickens Over Camp Carroll Agent Orange Dump (Chosun Ilbo 25 May 2011)

The Love Canal environmental disaster at the Niagara Falls area of New York state in 1978 may be linked to the burial of toxic defoliants by the U.S. military in Korea, experts speculate. The Love Canal disaster, in which 21,000 tons of toxic chemicals were found buried in the area, coincides with the timing when large amounts of the defoliant Agent Orange were buried at Camp Carroll in southeastern Korea in 1978.

In the 1940s, an American chemical company called Hooker Chemical buried toxic chemicals, including dioxin, which is used to produce Agent Orange, in the Love Canal site which was turned into a chemical dumpsite after the construction was aborted,…

Civilians Allegedly Mobilized to Spray Defoliant in DMZ (Korea Times 25 May 2011)

Chemicals buried near Seoul in ’60s, says veteran (Joongang Ilbo 25 May 2011)

Holding US responsible for defoliant burial seen as difficult (Donga Ilbo 25 May 2011)

Despite the growing suspicion that the U.S. Forces Korea buried tons of defoliant in and around

Camp Carroll, a U.S. military base in North Gyeongsang Province, holding the U.S. responsible is

considered difficult.

When the Status of Forces Agreement was signed, no rules existed on the disposal of environmental waste and how it was disposed of did not matter.

The Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry said Tuesday, “When the chemical was buried between 1978 and 1980, there were no rules on environmental waste. Therefore, saying such action by the USFK violated the agreement is difficult. Neither can it be applied retroactively.”

Back then, the agreement had only an abstract description, saying, “Operations in the facilities and areas in use by the United States armed forces shall be carried on with due regard for public safety.”

Rules on the environment were included in the agreement in the 2000s. The Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry said a “Memorandum of Special Understanding on Environmental Protection” was signed in 2001.

“The Government of the United States confirms its policy to promptly remedy contamination caused by United States armed forces in Korea that poses a known, imminent and substantial endangerment to human health.”

The SOFA is considered too abstract. Je Seong-ho, a law professor at Chung-Ang University in

Seoul, said, “The two parties might cooperate to improve the situation but the agreement did not

specify issues such as restoration or indemnity.”

Seong Jae-ho, a law professor at Sungkyunkwan University, said, “Since the U.N. stressed that this declaration has the effect of international customary law, the burial of the chemical by U.S. forces can be considered a violation of international law.”

According to the U.S. military, a 2004 study involving the boring of 13 holes at Camp Carroll found 1.7 ppb of dioxin from one hole. The figure is relatively high compared with the range of dioxin (0 to 0.119 ppb) in Korea nationwide released by the Environment Ministry the same year.

‘Chemicals Dumped’ at Another U.S. Base in Korea (Chosun Ilbo 25 May 2011)

[Editorial] The USFK Must Come Clean About Agent Orange (Chosun Ilbo 24 May 2011)

It remains unclear whether the drums the Eighth Army is talking about are the same ones the veterans mentioned, but chances are that they are. The U.S. should never have buried them there in the first place, but it would certainly be a relief if they were dug out a year or two later.

What remains to be done is to conduct a thorough investigation to eliminate every shadow of suspicion. First of all, investigators need to find out if the drums that were buried and dug out again contained Agent Orange, as the veterans claimed. If there are no records left, then investigators need to question soldiers who served at the base, or dig.

Chemical Dumping Grips Anxious Residents (Korea Times 24 May 2011)

Residents in areas near Camp Carroll in South Gyeongsang Province where the U.S. Army allegedly buried tons of Agent Orange in 1978 are anxious about whether the deadly chemicals contaminated the Nakdong River, situated just 600 meters away from the military camp.

Civic groups are stepping up protests, calling for the government to launch a thorough investigation while demanding an apology and compensation from the U.S. Army.

“The U.S. Army, which is responsible for the incident, should disclose exactly what happened through a detailed probe. Then it should do its utmost to recover damage done to the contaminated earth and make a sincere apology to the Korean people,” the Gyeongnam Environment Association said in a joint statement issued with other civic groups in the southeastern region.

Although the U.S. military vowed to closely work with its Korean investigation team to investigate the allegation in a quick and effective manner, it failed to confront the issues raised by the residents living within the vicinity of the suspected burial site.

“We drank underground water until 2009 and some villagers still drink it. We use underground water for farming and we eat cultivated vegetables from the land and sell them,” a villager said.

Four or five people in the neighborhood villages have been diagnosed with cancer in recent years, which he thinks may be connected with the alleged dumping of Agent Orange.

He and other villagers said that about 20 people have died of cancer over the last four decades in Agok Villiage in Waegwan, Chilgok County, supporting suspicions that the deadly chemicals were the cause.

During the first official briefing at the camp to media, environmentalists and villagers, the United States Forces Korea (USFK) said a large number of drums containing chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and solvents were buried at the camp in 1978, citing a 1992 study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Another remaining question is whether the U.S. army intentionally concealed the dumping of chemical materials, which is a violation of SOFA.

Under the agreement, the U.S. military stationed in Korea should immediately inform the Seoul government and local authorities in the event of environmental accidents involving U.S. forces.

It was agreed as part of the revision of SOFA in 2001, proposed after the U.S. military came under fire for having illegally dumped toxic chemicals into Seoul’s Han River in 2000.

Environment activists and lawmakers argue that SOFA should be revised to allow the Korean government to obtain more independence for the investigation of environmental incidents and demand proper compensation.

“I think we should revise SOFA to protect the lives and safety of our people,” Rep. Kim Hak-song of the ruling Grand National Party said. “Now, we also need to thoroughly investigate other pollution cases involving the U.S. military here.”

US forces share 1978 study on defoliant at Camp Carroll (Donga Ilbo 24 May 2011)

Dioxins found at Camp Carroll: U.S. (Joongang Daily 24 May 2011)

‘Chemicals dumped in Bucheon’ (Korea Herald 24 May 2011)

Another former U.S. soldier claimed seven years ago that his unit in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, dumped “every imaginable chemical” there in the 1960s, a U.S.-based Korean journalist said Monday.

The comment further escalated public anxiety over toxic chemical contamination by U.S. troops here, who are alleged to have buried a considerable amount of Agent Orange at a base in Waegwan, North Gyeongsang Province, in 1978.

…“We dug a pit with a bulldozer ― doned rubber suits and gas masks and dumped every imaginable chemical ― hundreds of gallons if not more ― into the ground on a knoll behind the second storage warehouse on the right.”

…Local residents near Camp Carroll have expressed strong displeasure over the reported dumping of the toxic substance, saying that they feel “betrayed” by the U.S. troops who have stressed “peaceful coexistence” with them.

They are concerned that the dumping could seriously damage the image of their living ground famed for “clean, natural environment” and cause the public to doubt the safety of agricultural products grown there.

“The U.S. troops that came here in 1960 lead the regional development here. But they have turned into obstacles for our development and a subject of fears,” said Chang Se-ho, chief of the Chilgok County, in an interview with the local daily Munhwa Ilbo.

Some environmental activists have expressed concerns over the possibility that there may be some other places where the U.S. troops have dumped harmful waste.

[Editorial] Prompt action (Korea Herald 24 May 2011)

United States Forces Korea is acting promptly to establish facts following claims by American veterans that Agent Orange was buried at a U.S. Army camp in southern Korea. The U.S. command has issued press statements almost on a daily basis since the disclosure through a U.S. cable network last week and the Korean and U.S. authorities conducted a preliminary on-site investigation at Camp Carroll in Chilgok.

USFK Commander Gen. Walter Sharp ordered a swift and transparent investigation into the illegal disposal of toxic material on Korean soil including the sampling of underground water for contamination. The Eighth U.S. Army reported that a 1992 study by military engineers confirmed the burial in 1978 of “a large number of drums containing chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and solvents” inside the compound and the drilling of test holes in 2004 found “trace amounts” of Agent Orange.

…The U.S. military authorities’ speedy notification of Korean officials about the outcome of their initial investigation was commendable. But the information led to some serious questions as to why the U.S. authorities had not immediately shared the results of the 1992 study and the 2004 survey with Korean officials. Also unclear was how much of the buried Agent Orange was excavated and where the unearthed chemicals and apparently contaminated earth was moved.

…We do not doubt the sincerity of the present U.S. government and military authorities in addressing the issue after three decades. The first practical step we may recommend is to bring the three American veterans quickly to Camp Carroll and let them point out the exact location of the burial site to facilitate speedy excavation.

Dioxin Traces Found at Camp Carroll (Chosun Ilbo 24 May 2011)

Dioxin levels at Camp Carroll in southeastern Korea exceed standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forces Korea said Monday.

..The USFK said the level was only a trace amount and posed no health hazards. But it is 1.7 times higher than the level recommended by the EPA. Dioxin is among the most carcinogenic compounds in the world.

Korea, U.S. to Investigate Agent Orange Claim (Chosun Daily 23 May 2011)

According to Statistics Korea’s data on causes of death by region, the cancer death rate in the Chilgok area, of which Waegwan is a part, was between 0.6 to 18.3 people more than the national average between 2005 and 2009.

The mortality rate for diseases of the nervous system in Chilgok was also above the national average in 2005-2009, except in 2006.

But experts said it is too early to link the mortality rates in Chilgok to dioxin poisoning, because the rates are generally higher in other parts of North Gyeongsang Province as well as Chilgok, and the dumping of the chemicals has not been confirmed yet.

Witness saw soldiers bury canisters at Camp Carroll (Joongang Daily 23 May 2011)

After a news report last week said that the U.S. military allegedly buried highly toxic Agent Orange – used as a defoliant during the Vietnam War – at one of its camps in Korea citing three veterans, a resident in Chilgok County of North Gyeongsang told the JoongAng Ilbo that he saw U.S. soldiers spending days digging the ground to bury something.

A 51-year-old taxi driver surnamed Park told the JoongAng Ilbo on Saturday that he and his friends saw from a mountain near Camp Carroll that U.S. soldiers were digging for days in the summer of 1978.

Park, a high school dropout, recalled that U.S. soldiers used to dump garbage, including expired combat rations, in the village by covering them with earth.

“When we saw soldiers digging, my friends and I instantly thought they’re burying something good again so we later went to the site and started digging,” Park said. “Overturning our expectations, what we thought were C-rations turned out to be yellow containers when we dug about 2 meters (6.5 feet) below the ground.”

Park said he and his friends put the dirt back and left the scene because they feared the containers held radioactive material. Park said soldiers dug the ground in the daytime and trucks came in and out of the site in the nighttime.

US Army Admits Chemical Dumping (Korea Times 23 May 2011)

The Eighth U.S. Army based in Korea acknowledged Monday that it had buried harmful chemical substances that included dioxin at Camp Carroll in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province.

Agent Orange probe progresses (Korea Herald 23 May 2011)

…But in light of the stir, a ruling party lawmaker has called for a revision of the Status of Forces Agreement at an emergency committee held by the National Assembly on Monday.

Kim Hak-sung of the Grand National Party said that the recent incident justifies the need to reestablish the relationship with the USFK.

“We need to renegotiate the revision of the SOFA in a direction heading towards securing the health and safety of our people,” said Kim.

The Agent Orange stir has the USFK drawing heat from Green Korea United as well, demanding that the military acknowledge responsibility.

“The dumping of Agent Orange in an USFK army base is not simply an environmental incident but is a systematic environmental crime,” said a GKU official at a press conference in front of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Monday.

…Some observers said that should the alleged burial of Agent Orange be confirmed, the U.S. military might shoulder the cost to address contamination issues. But they said that it would be difficult to punish those involved as there were no cases in which a U.S. soldier has been punished for environmental contamination.

In 2003, one U.S. civilian worker in the military was given a suspended six-month jail term after civic groups filed a suit against him for leaking poisonous liquid into the Han River from the Yongsan Garrison in Central Seoul.

[Editorial] Agent Orange probe (Korea Herald 22 May 2011)

S. Korea, U.S. launch Agent Orange probe (Korea Herald 22 May 2011)

South Korea and the U.S. have agreed to a joint investigation into the alleged burial three decades ago of Agent Orange at a U.S. military base in Waegwan, North Gyeongsang Province, a senior government official said Sunday.

“Recognizing the urgency and importance of the matter, the U.S. has actively engaged in consultations with us. For a prompt, transparent resolution of the issue, the two sides have agreed to quickly proceed with a joint investigation,” Yook Dong-han, vice minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, told reporters.

How have Agent Orange victims been compensated? (Donga Ilbo 21 May 2011)

[Editorial] Agent Orange Outrage (Joongang Ilbo 21 May 2011)

Exposure to the toxic herbicide used during the Vietnam War has been proven to cause serious illnesses like cancer and birth defects. We are dumbfounded to discover that such toxic chemicals have been under the ground a few miles from the Nakdong River for more than three decades.

The act – no matter how long ago it took place – is still a crime that calls for accountability.

American forces in South Korea have been under fire several times for their heedless environmental contamination. Many areas near military bases have been polluted with oil leaks and an army hospital at Yongsan base in Seoul was identified as having dumped phenol waste into the Han River.

..If American military authorities try to duck away from accountability or fail to pursue an investigation, the case could result in mass protests against the U.S. military’s presence in South Korea. When American military officials protected the soldiers who ran over and killed two South Korean teenagers nine years ago, activists and students took to the streets en masse and led nationwide vigil protests against the American forces.

Gov’t launches Agent Orange probe (Joongang Ilbo 21 May 2011)

Lawmakers and civic groups in the Chilgok region held a rally yesterday.

“It could be a massive disaster,” read a statement released by the Democratic Party’s North Gyeongsang branch. “The government should investigate this matter immediately and find out the truth. Given the fact that Camp Carroll plays a role as an ammunition depot, the amount of defoliant buried at the site could be more than expected. If the news report is true, the U.S. military must take responsibility, pay compensation and conduct regular Korea-U.S. joint inspections.”

Friends of the Earth International, an environmental group, held a rally in front of Camp Carroll with other environmental groups yesterday, demanding the U.S military allow them to join the field survey with the Ministry of Environment. Their request was rejected. Green Korea, another activist group, said yesterday: “The defoliant could have already polluted the Nakdong River. The government should inspect local people’s health first.”

Probing defoliant claims (Donga Ilbo 21 May 2011)

Gov`t inspects alleged Agent Orange contamination (Donga Ilbo 21 May 2011

A stream flows near a drainage ditch originating from Camp Carroll. The key is whether defoliant

buried there has spread out to surrounding areas.”

These were a few comments made by a Korean government official Friday who inspected a site around the U.S. military base in the township of Waegwan, Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang Province. With a massive volume of defoliant allegedly buried by U.S. forces there in 1978, the Korean government conducted a preliminary survey around the camp.

Defoliant probe team sent to U.S. base area (Korea Herald 20 May 2011)

South Korea’s Environment Ministry dispatched Friday an investigation team to an area around a U.S. military base in Korea where barrels of Agent Orange were allegedly buried about 30 years ago.

A U.S. cable TV network reported on May 13, citing three former American soldiers who served in the U.S. Forces Korea, that they had buried the highly toxic substance at Camp Carroll in Chilgok, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, in 1978.

The paragraphs quoting the anti-US NGO Green Korea did not come until the middle of the article:

“If Agent Orange was dumped in 1978, the drums may have already been eroded. And the toxic substance could have contaminated the soil and underground water near the area,” said Chung In-cheol of Green Korea United.

“Especially, the U.S. camp is situated just 630 meters away from the Nakdong River, which is the water source for major cities like Daegu and Busan,” he said, calling for the establishment of a government-private consultative group.

‘U.S. military buried Agent Orange in Korea’ (Korea Herald 20 May 2011)

The U.S. military buried leftover Agent Orange, a defoliant widely used during the Vietnam War, at one of its camps in Korea in 1978, former USFK soldiers told a U.S. TV program.

The Korean government on Thursday demanded the United States verify the report by Phoenix, Arizona-based KPHO CBS 5 News. It also proposed a joint investigation into the claim.

Gov’t launches investigation into alleged Agent Orange burial (Korea Herald (Yonhap) 20 May 2011)

South Korea’s Environment Ministry has launched an investigation into the area where the U.S. military allegedly buried leftover Agent Orange, a defoliant widely used during the Vietnam War, ministry officials said Friday.

…

A U.S. terrestrial TV station reported earlier this week, citing three veterans, that USFK buried the highly toxic substance at Camp Carroll some 30 years ago.

The Environment Ministry on Thursday demanded the United States verify the news report at an environment committee under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The U.S. Eighth Army that has Camp Carroll under its command said USFK was verifying the report.

U.S. Veterans Admit Burying Deadly Chemical in Korea (Chosun Ilbo 20 May 2011)

The big news is — North Korea is the invading army in the new version.  North Korea!!

China was the original bad guy, but the studio backing the film forced the producers to go back to digitally edited out signs of the Chinese Red Army and change it with the one run by Pyongyang.  You can read all about it at Big Hollywood.

What will interest me is how South Korean society reacts to this.  To what level…

If this were the South Korea of 5 or 10 years ago, I’d get the video camera out to record the protest fun.  These days…?

They’ll be pissed – for sure – but how pissed?

If this were the days of before, I’d cringe that the movie is going to hit public attention in Korea when the USFK grandma rape case is still fresh and ready to be blown up out of proportion.

It will be interesting and maybe a little informative to see how this movie plays out in South Korean society…

Seoul police arrested two pro-Pyongyang activists on charges of starting a campaign to remove a statue of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur from a park in Incheon under orders from North Korea.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, two leaders of the Korean Confederation Unification Promotion Council were arrested on charges of receiving directives from a North Korean agent from 2004 to 2005 to stage a series of violent, illegal rallies from May to September 2005, demanding the removal of the MacArthur statue. The North also told them to organize an alliance of progressive civic groups to demand the withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea.

Police said 12 additional members of the council are to be investigated in the case.

This is the latest in a series of investigations of national security law violations regarding the statue of the general, who led the United Nations Command in the Korean War from 1950 to 1951. In memory of his September 1950 amphibious invasion at Incheon, which turned the tide of the war, the statue was erected at the Incheon Freedom Park in 1957.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

Read the rest at the link, but the For those that don’t know, the Korean Confederation Unification Promotion Council is one of the many North Korean front groups active in South Korea that instigated the MacArthur Statue protests in Incheon that ultimately led to a massive counter-demonstration by ROK Marine Corps veterans that turned the streets of Incheon into utter anarchy of fisticuffs:

What was most revolting about this issue was that the anti-US leftists deliberately planned their biggest protest to tear down the MacArthur Statue on September 11, 2005, which brought us memorable pictures such as this:

These people have been breaking the law for years, but has been able to get away with it due to the Roh Moo-hyun administration not enforcing the National Security Law.  This selective enforcement of the law is nothing new in Korea because while these North Korean apologists and spies was busy degrading the country, the Roh government was busy trying to silence the ROK veterans groups that regularly counter-protests these North Korean stooges. Lets also keep in mind that it wasn’t just the anti-US leftists that were trying to tear down the statue, the Korea Times also advocated for tearing down the statue:

As President Roh made it clear that it is the government’s position to keep the statue, U.S. lawmakers had better wait and see. Nor is this an issue for partisan wrangling domestically. Related officials can consider relocating it to a war memorial from the present public park someday. We have never heard of a statue of Dwight Eisenhower in Normandy to commemorate D-Day.

So keep that in mind the next time you read the Korea Times, that they advocated removing the MacArthur statue because a bunch of North Korean sponsored stooges demanded it. Plus their claims that Eisenhower’s statue is not on display at Normandy were proven to be utterly false as well. Ike’s statue stands proudly at Normandy just like MacArthur’s statue should continue to stand proudly at Inchon.

With the Lee Myung-bak administration in power they have regularly been going after these North Korean sponsored leftist groups in the aftermath of the mad cow demonstrations that nearly toppled his presidency in 2008.  This latest prosecution is just a continuing of this effort which has led to a very long lull in anti-US activity in South Korea.  These anti-US groups are now for the most part laying low now awaiting their next opportunity to demagogue and lie about an issue to bring them the national media attention they crave to promote their causes.