Forbidden Rights to Pollute the Korean Peninsula

U.S Military Activities and Environmental Disaster

Introduction and Background

The presence of U.S. forces in South Korea has recently become a burning issue. Candlelight rallies have spread from Seoul to other major cities. Every week day there had been evening candlelight vigils in front of the American Embassy in Seoul. The first such vigil near the American Embassy attracted more than ten thousand people, most of whom were informed through voluntary networks on the Internet. On December 31, 2002, one hundred thousand people gathered in front of the American Embassy. Popular -stars, including singers and movie actors joined the vigils, holding special concerts and declaring their views on the one-sidedness of U.S. policies toward South Korea. Religious groups also held prayer meetings.

What has inspired this wave of protests in front of the American Embassy? On June 13, 2002, two Korean schoolgirls, Shin Hyo-soon and Shim Mi-sun, were crushed to death in Yangju County, Kyonggi Province, Korea, by an armored vehicle belonging to the 2nd Division of the U.S. Forces. The day after the Korean government requested that the USFK give up criminal jurisdiction, the U.S. army gave an interview in which they said that they would not give up criminal jurisdiction since the accident happened during official duty. That response sparked a series of demonstrations that demanded the closure of the tank training facility and military bases that caused the accident and the detention of the U.S. soldiers who were involved. The demonstrators as well as the public especially demanded a public apology by President Bush, as former President Clinton apologized publicly after a U.S. soldier raped a little girl in Japan. On November 20 and 22, 2002, two U.S. servicemen involved in the accident were tried in their military court with an all-servicemen jury and were acquitted. Since then Korean people have been seething with anger at the U.S. court for brazenly acquitting the U.S. soldiers. Koreans are especially incensed about the official response from the U.S. military that ‘the road accident was unavoidable.’ As the crimes and arrogance of U.S. forces in Korea were allowed to wound the lives and self-respect of Korean people, the Korean government is being blamed for neglecting its duty of protecting the lives and human rights of its people. According to the Korean government, U.S. soldiers committed 761 crimes against Korean citizens in 1999. In most of these cases, U.S. soldiers have been released without punishment or compensation to the victims. Therefore, the Korean government should at once undertake an overall revision of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The Korean National Assembly should also convene an extraordinary session to adopt a resolution urging the Korean government to generally revise SOFA.

The presence of the U.S. military in Korea has also meantsoil contamination and other types of pollution. There are currently 37,000 U.S. troops stationed at 93 bases, covering a total area of 60,700 acres, in Korea. From the time of the deployment of U.S. troops in 1945 to the present, environmental pollution has been constant, and the U.S. military has neglected to be concerned about the impact. What all of this shows is that the hegemonic strategies of U.S. militarism stand in the way of Korean reunification, more realistic defense expenditures and sustainable development.

Environmental Accidents Caused by U.S. Forces in Korea

Military activities including wars, training, and bases are against the idea of sustainablity in many ways. Since 1990, 45 environmental pollution accidents occurred on U.S. bases, with 24 of those cases resulting from oil leakages due to negligence or aging oil pipelines. Oil leakage pollutes the soil and ground water, and restoration and clean-up are both difficult and costly.

Case 1. Youngsan U.S. Base Oil Leakage

USFK Admits to Oil Pollution on Base -October 7, 2002 The Korea Times

USFK Admits Responsibility for Another Oil Leak in Seoul

-October 23, 2002 The Korea Times

The USFK has confirmed that the oil leak found in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Hannam-dong was from a worn-out pipe in the Religious Retreat Center on Yongsan U.S. base. Green Korea United (GKU) raised allegations on October 16 that oil from the Eighth U.S. Army base facilities had contaminated soil near the camp and the apartment parking lot. To make the point, a GKU activist actually lit the soil near the camp, it ignited. This accident happened just nine days after GKU gave a press release about oil leak accidents on U.S. military bases. One of the leaks was found during excavation for installing a geothermal heating systemand the other was found during a project to upgrade athletic facilities. The confirmation of soil pollution is expected to add to the ongoing controversy over the source of oil-contamination of underground water at Noksapyong subway station on Line 6, which runs alongside Yongsan Eighth U.S Army base. It is clear that there is widespread contamination of underground water and soil at the main U.S. military compound in Yongsan. However, both the South Korean government and USFK authorities give the impression that they are trying to conceal these facts.

Case 2. USFK Bombing Site at Maehayngri

Maehayngri villagers are still fighting against USFK and Lockheed Martin. Continual bombing trainings have taken place there for longer than a half century and have claimed eleven lives. Maehayngri villagers are thus being killed and made sick, while their source of livelihood is being destroyed. GKU discovered that 5.37 mg/kg of arsenic, 13 times the Korean soil average, was found in the bombing range. Also, cadmium was found to be 37 times higher than average, while copper was 13 times higher and lead 145 times higher than average. It goes without saying that the land of Maehayngri is highly contaminated with heavy metals.

Case 3. Formaldehyde Leakage Accident into the Han River

Mr. McFarland, who was found to have ordered a subordinate to pour 480 bottles of formaldehyde into the Han River, was later promoted. He is still working in a mortuary building and to this day deals with formaldehyde in Yongsan Eighth U.S Army Base. GKU proposed a claim for damages to Korean people, but the U.S. Army announced they will not give up criminal jurisdiction since the accident happened during official duty. Under the current SOFA there is nothing that we can do about this kind of environmental disaster.

Case 4. Threatened Biodiversity in DMZ and CCZ

The Korean DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and CCZ (Citizen’s Control Zone) are famous for being ecologically well preserved. Now this area is being carelessly trodden on by the U.S. Army, which is using the area as a military training site and firing range. Inhabitants living around the U.S. bases in Paju (around CCZ) have been suffering considerable injuries or damages. A nearby U.S. tank training ground is polluting the preservation area of a water supply source, and heavy metals and gunpowder from Story Firing Range are running into the Imjin River.

The New Threat, LPP (Land and Partnership Plan)

The U.S. military has already started to build up its MD (Missile Defense) Policy in Korea. They declared a plan on July 18, 2001, to return 132 million sq. meters of land, currently used by their troops stationed in South Korea, over the next ten years. Under this plan, called the Land and Partnership Plan (LPP), the United States requests that the Korean government in return grant new land for its consolidated bases and training facilities. Before the MD process can begin, however, the U.S. needs to better prepare a complex base and air superiority base system.

Base closures represent a return of national assets that can be used for a variety of projects, including parks, housing, and schools. However, these lands come with health risks, for civilians, including children, will be directly exposed to military toxic hazards. Of the proposed land to be returned by USFK, about 90 percent covers training facilities, which have almost been abandoned and are seriously polluted by U.S. military activities. According to SOFA, Korea is not allowed to demand any compensation for environmental damages caused by the U.S. military. The Korean government will bear the tremendous recovery costs and eventually the Korean people will be burdened by the financial cost for the clean up. We do not know how much money is needed to restore the polluted areas. In the meantime, we cannot even build a house or kindergarten for children on the land returned by USFK. When closing and returning bases, the U.S. should negotiate a post-closure clean-up agreement that allows for the continuation of environmental obligations. Otherwise Koreans will suffer the same environmental problems that the people in the Philippines faced after the closure of the former U.S. Clark Air Base.

Militarism and Sustainable Development

The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)-hich was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, with 40,000 participants from various sectors (government, NGOs, farmers, laborers)- did not achieve very much. The Johannesburg Implementation Plan conveyed nothing from Section 2 of the Millennium Declaration, which is devoted to peace, security and disarmament. Indeed, the Johannesburg Implementation Plan fell far short of the initial ideas on disarmament presented at the Stockholm and Rio Conferences. It is not possible to achieve sustainable development without peace and when many countries are still spending a large proportion of GDP for military purposes.

In 2001, the world spent about 3.5 percent of all gross national products for military purposes (International Institute for Strategic Studies 2002). The total amount of military expenditures for the world was US $835.242 billion. The military is thus the most destructive and costly of all social sectors, generating exorbitant quantities of pollutants, stimulating violent conflict, and subverting sustainable development. Reallocation of even a small proportion of military spending would entirely fund global sustainable development goals.

Increased tension in Asia after September 11, 2001, led to more military activities and exercises led by the United States. The U.S. is trying to build a new naval base on Jeju island in Korea and came up with a plan to construct a U.S. military airport offshore of Henoko, to the east of Nago in Okinawa. Enlarged U.S military activities in Asia is the number one obstacle to sustainable development in Asia.

How to Solve the Problems

Korean people have been struggling for a long time to solve these problems. In the early 1990s it was really hard to even find out what happened with U.S. soldiers involved in murders and violences. The Korean media avoided dealing with U.S. military-related accidents. Now the situation has changed, and civic groups are more organized to deal with this issue and are better prepared to find more efficient ways to solve such problems.

Domestic Action

– NGOs and local people should continue investigating and watching the environmental problems caused by U.S. military activities.

– Educate local people about how to watch for and deal with environmental pollution caused by U.S. bases and instruct them on how to solve those problems, : e.g., lawsuits for compensation from the Korean government and USFK.

– Revise the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA)

– Government : the 2003 budget for researching environmental pollution at U.S. military bases was US $17,000 (Ministry of Environment in Korea). This is the first time the Ministry of Environment has allocated such funds. However, the amount is still not enough money to research U.S. base-caused environmental pollution.

– AGENDA 21 : Uijeongbu International Symposium in 2002

밬.S. military base problems and solutions as well as making a peaceful urban life?was the theme of the Uijeongbu Agenda 21 Committee. There are ten U.S. military facilities in Uijeongbu, northeast of Seoul. U.S. military facilites cause many problems for sustainable urban development plans in Uijeongbu. Local Agenda 21 committees in each area that have U.S military facilities and bases recognized this and they have started to respond.

International Cooperation Action

The U.S. Defense of Department officals acknowledge that there is widespead contamination of overseas bases. But there is a double standard in overseas U.S. military base cleanup. The largest share of the $165 million spent in 1999 on environmental compliance and cleanup overseas, for example, went to Germany. In 1996 Canada negotiated a special deal with the Pentagon to receive $100 milion worth of cleanup money. Meanwhile, the U.S. has provided no cleanup funds for the two major bases closed in the Philippines. The U.S spent $1.72 billion in 2000 on cleanup of domestic bases while overseas bases collectively received only $165 million.

The goal of the international cooperation action focused on the U.S. military is to monitor the overseas environmental guidelines and applies the Polluter Pays Principles (PPP) to overseas military activities. To do that we need to cooperate with the United Nations and follow the regulations which we all agreed to for a better society and earth. On February 9, 2001, the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum unanimously adopted the Programme for the Development and Periodic Review of Environmental Law for the First Decade of the Twenty-first Century (Montevideo Program III) as the broad strategy for the activities of UNEP in the field of the environment. The Governing Council requested that the Executive Director implement the Program, within available resources, through the programs of work of UNEP and in close cooperation with international organizations, non-State actors and persons.

A global survey on the application of environmental norms by military establishments is part of the 2002-2003 program of work under UNEP’s Montevideo Program III. Montevideo Program III refers to environmental aspects related with military activities. We hope that the global survey will be a milestone to publicize U.S. military base-related environmental pollution all around the world.

Starting from Asia

As a result of the partial revision of SOFA in 2001, it has become possible for Korean government officials to enter and inspect U.S. military bases when environmental pollution occurs. Even though it was revised, it has never been enforced yet. . It is thus extremely important to further revise SOFA. That is because the U.S. military apparently does not respect it. This is a problem of trust, which implies that Korea-U.S. relationship has not been really based on trust but rather on power. We also believe that Korea is not the only country that suffers from U.S. military abuses: Okinawa, Japan, Vieques, Puerto Rico, and many other places are all in the same boat. Solutions to the problems posed by U.S. bases has become a new international issue at a time when the world stands at a crossroads between war and peace in the 21st century.

The 1st International Workshop on Military Activities and the Environment, hosted by the Okinawa Environmental Network, will be held between March 19 and 23 in Okinawa, Japan. There is a growing possibility of developing united efforts and cooperation among national movements for this task. We are sure Okinawa in Japan, Korea, and the Philippines will serve as a starting point in Asia for this task.

Sources

Gill-Chin Lim, “Critical Issues in Sustainable Development- From Rio to Johannesburg to here?” Foreign Policy in Focus, “The International Grassroots Summit on Military Base Cleanup”