I would think that USFK understands this is not about turning over land, but instead the Moon administration scoring political points for standing up to the big, bad Americans before National Assembly elections next year:
The U.S. military wants to set the record straight as it faces South Korean pressure to expedite the handover of bases as part of a drawn-out relocation plan.
U.S. Forces Korea is ready to turn over more than half of the bases now, including parts of Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, the command said Wednesday in a rare public display of frustration.
South Korea “recently announced that it desired to expedite the return process of 26 U.S. military installations,” USFK said. “Fifteen of the 26 U.S. military installations, including four sites specifically requested for transfer at the earliest possible date … have been vacated, closed and available for transfer to the (South Korean) government.”
“Two parcels of Yongsan Garrison have been vacated, closed and available for transfer since 2014 with another three parcels since summer 2019 for a total of five parcels available now,” it added.
Stars & Stripes
You can read the rest at the link, but the ROK government is stating that they are not accepting the hand over of the facilities that USFK has vacated because of environmental concerns knowing full well that the Status of Forces Agreement states that the ROK will accept the land “as is”.
This is a standard play call from the Korean left wing playbook. They demand the turn over of USFK facilities, but when USFK tries to do just that they play delay games declaring the property is polluted. This allows activists and politicians to grandstand and claim how USFK is polluting Korea and if it wasn’t for left wing politicians and activists they would get away with it, so donate and vote for us.
Back during the last big hand over of land during the left wing Roh Moo-hyun administration they kept claiming that the bases in the 2nd Infantry Division area were too polluted to be handed over. For example it was claimed that Camp Kyle was a no use area that required people to enter the base with anti-contamination suits. I knew this was misinformation and walked over to Camp Kyle and took a picture of people walking around with out anti-contamination suits. The propaganda got so bad that a blockbuster Korean horror movie based on the premise that USFK pollution created the monster that was going around killing Koreans.
Expect more misinformation in the coming months about how polluted the U.S. bases are and that South Korea should not pay one dime extra in US-ROK alliance upkeep costs because of it. The Korean left is likely not going to want this issued resolved until after not only next year’s National Assembly elections, but possibly the 2022 ROK Presidential election as well.
