The Next Anti-US Cause?

The news of an expansion to the Kunsan Air Force Base may become another front in the anti-US movement in Korea:

U.S. Forces Korea and South Korea are planning a large expansion of Kunsan Air Base.

A final decision on what will fill that expanded base has not been made, a USFK spokesman said Monday.

South Korean Ministry of Defense officials, however, expect two Army helicopter battalions to move there, and an Army Corps of Engineers Web site mentions past planning for such a move.

The 8th Fighter Wing currently is using South Korean relocation funds to build a fence around land bordering the base, USFK spokesman David Oten said Monday.

The defense ministry is clearing 315 acres for the expansion, a South Korean ministry official with the USFK relocation business division said Thursday.

92 Korean households need to be relocated due to the expansion with 31 families already agreeing to move.  However, the remaining home owners want an increased compensation package because they claim the government is offering them $65 per pyong while the land is supposedly worth $108 per pyong.   If this doesn’t get worked out it will be interesting to see if the anti-US hate groups will mobilize to oppose the Kunsan expansion just like they did to oppose the Camp Humphreys expansion.