Tag: Yongsan Garrison

Life is about to get a little better for USFK personnel still stationed at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul:

The U.S. military said Saturday that it will ease anti-coronavirus restrictions for troops and other personnel on this Army garrison in Seoul, but unauthorized travel to the capital from other bases remains prohibited.

The move, which begins at noon Monday, came more than a month after U.S. Forces Korea lifted restrictions for bases elsewhere in South Korea but maintained them for Yongsan because of continued cluster infections there.

USFK cited “the continued low numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases within Yongsan district,” for its decision to lower the health alert level from “Charlie” to “Bravo” for the area in central Seoul.

That means personnel may go to restaurants, hair salons, child care facilities, gyms and other off-base establishments in Yongsan for the first time in months, but only if they live in the area.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but personnel from bases out of Seoul are still not allowed to travel to the nation’s capitol city due to the coronavirus. The way this pandemic is turning out, you could have someone do an entire tour in USFK and never get a chance to visit Seoul because of the coronavirus.

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.

Here is an important update from Yongsan Garrison in regards to its upcoming end of medical services on October 1st. There will be a town hall on September 9th at the Post Chapel at 1500 to discuss.

Here is the slide that lists the dates of when services on Yongsan Garrison will end. The slide is from the recent town hall held at Yongsan Garrison Of particular note is that the PX will close on January 1, 2020 and the Commissary sometime in September 2021. The Post Office is scheduled to be open all the way to August 2022. Considering how the Moon administration is claiming the expedited hand over of Yongsan Garrison this year, these close out dates do not indicate that will happen. It all appears to be political posturing.

It will be interesting to see what the fate of the Dragon Hill Lodge will be as well since the ROK government wants to demolish it, while USFK wants to keep it open after the relocation of Yongsan Garrison is complete.

The long planned for closure of Yongsan Garrison in Seoul will officially happen over the next couple of months:

The U.S. Forces Korea will end all services at a major military base in the heart of Seoul within this year to prepare the return of the land to the South Korean government, military officials said Saturday. 

The U.S. military has been moving its bases from around the country to a refurbished garrison in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, since 2017.

While the USFK headquarters and the Eighth Army have moved to the new headquarters, called Camp Humphreys, the U.S. military has been preparing to vacate Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul to speed up the relocation processes.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the return of closed out U.S. military bases in South Korea:

Cheong Wa Dae said Friday it will redouble efforts for the early return of more than two dozen U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) bases.

It was briefing media on the results of a weekly meeting of the National Security Council’s (NSC) standing committee.

The USFK has been moving its bases nationwide mainly to a refurbished garrison in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul. It’s named Camp Humphreys.

The process of South Korea regaining the sites of the affected bases has been going slowly, however, partly due to handling of polluted soil.

In the session, presided over by Chung Eui-yong, director of Cheong Wa Dae’s national security office, the NSC panel members agreed to “push actively for an early return” of the sites of 26 USFK bases, which will be vacant or have already been, according to Cheong Wa Dae.

“In particular, (they) agreed to begin the return process on the Yongsan base (in central Seoul) within this year,” it said.

Top security officials, including the defense minister, especially decided to seek the return of four bases at the earliest possible date, it added.

They are Camp Long and Camp Eagle in Wonju, Gangwon Province, as well as Camp Market in Incheon and Camp Hovey in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province.

Those who reside in nearby areas have suffered economic troubles because of a long delay in the return of the bases, the NSC officials noted.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

You have to like how this article published by Yonhap makes it seem like there was rampant crime caused by service members at Yongsan Garrison:

he pullout of the headquarters of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) from the Yongsan base in the heart of Seoul in June 2018 has created a bittersweet aftermath in the central Seoul district over the past year.

On the bright side, the Yongsan area around the former USFK compound has seen a steep fall in the number of assaults and other crimes committed by American service personnel and civilian workers and their families.

On the flip side, merchants in Itaewon and other commercial areas close to former USFK facilities have suffered a steep drop in customers and sales. (……..)

Police and residents have said the reduced number of American soldiers and crimes involving them in the Yongsan area were the most noticeable change in the past year.

According to data from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, the number of criminal offenses committed by USFK members filed in Seoul in relation to the Status of Forces Agreement fell 18.5 percent from 119 cases in 2017 to 97 in 2018. In the first five months of this year, there were a mere 25 cases.

“American soldiers used to frequently cause trouble during their visits to Itaewon, which has a lot of bars. After the relocation of USFK facilities, U.S. military-related incidents and accidents have significantly decreased,” said a police officer.

Another officer from the Yongsan Police Station said, “Until two years ago, police officers frequently traveled to airports to take custody of USFK soldiers caught attempting to leave the country with gun magazines and other illegal possessions. But there have been very few such reports after the relocation of the U.S. base.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but 119 criminal cases in 2017 does not tell me much. Were the majority of these parking tickets and traffic citations which have been used in the past to inflate the GI crime rate? As I have always said statistics showing convictions for major crimes is the best way to determine what the GI crime rate really is.

As far as traveling to the airport this makes no sense because the soldiers just moved south to Camp Humphreys. The soldiers are still there so if illegal possessions at the airport was a problem before it should still be a problem now, though I have never heard of anyone getting arrested for a gun magazine at the airport.

The rest of the article goes on with the usual complaints about how Yongsan Garrison is basically a toxic waste dump preventing the creation of Seoul’s version of Central Park. Of course the article made no mention of the fact that Yongsan Garrison has below average soil pollution levels.

This must have been quite a bad work environment to win a settlement from the Army:

An African-American civilian hospital employee “reached a significant settlement agreement” with the Army in late April after a lawsuit filed last year alleging that she was subjected to a racist and sexist command climate while working in South Korea.
Shawlawn Beckford, who served on active duty for 11 years before returning in 2006 as a civilian, had accused the Army of supporting a hostile work environment at Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital at Yongsan, where she was an administrator from 2009 to 2015.
“As a civilian employee it is my duty to represent and uphold the Army’s mission, vision, and leadership philosophy — in or out of uniform,” Beckford said in a May 1 statement from the office of her attorney, Kellogg Hansen in Washington, D.C. “But I am more than a position. I am a person with feelings and emotions, and I was mistreated in a system that failed to protect me.”
Reached for comment by Army Times, Beckford requested to keep the dollar amount of the settlement private.

Army Times

This is something I have seen before, people thinking it is okay to use racial slurs if they are of the race the slur is intended for:

“On a weekly basis during that time period, [the command sergeant major] would visit Ms. Beckford’s office and make belligerent, gendered comments toward her,” according to the lawsuit. “For example, he told her, ‘You’re a single parent. You’re a slut.’ ”
He also made comments about her race, the complaint said, calling her “just a house [N-word],” “dumb [N-word],” “our token Black person” and “ghetto.” (…….)

The 15-6 investigation found that though he used racial slurs in the office, it wasn’t in a discriminatory manner, because he himself is black. Still, he was relieved of his position and barred from leading a command again, according to the complaint, but stayed working within the office and continued to harass Beckford.

You can read more about the poor work environment at the link, but the hospital at Yongsan Garrison seems to have had some highly unprofessional people working there.

Here we go with more of the Yongsan Garrison is contaminated articles:

Benzene, at levels 1,170 times the government-set safety limit, has been detected among other toxic chemicals in groundwater near Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, the former site of the headquarters of the U.S. Forces (USFK) in Korea, Seoul metropolitan government said Friday.

The government said the levels of toxins above the allowable limit were detected in 27 out of 62 observation wells, or monitoring points installed to observe changes in groundwater over a specific time period.

At 16 out of 41 monitoring points near Noksapyeong Station near the garrison, toxic substances from groundwater samples was found to exceed environmental safety limits. Free-floating oil was also detected.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but what the article does not tell you is that last year on-post soil samples at Yongsan Garrison did not show dangerous pollution levels. The fact that these readings are near Yongsan Garrison does not necessarily mean it is coming from the base.

However, expect more of these articles because it helps to mobilize public opinion against USFK at a time when the US government is trying to get the Moon administration to pay more for USFK upkeep. The Moon administration can use the pollution issue to claim they are already paying more money to clean up Yongsan Garrison and shouldn’t have to pay any more.

The new USFK commander has some concerns about moving the USFK headquarters into the Defense Ministry building:

South Korea and the United States are reconsidering a plan to relocate the combined command of their troops to the defense ministry compound in Seoul due to concern about operational efficiency, military sources said Thursday.

Combined Forces Command (CFC) chief Gen. Robert Abrams raised the need to rethink the plan, under which the CFC personnel will work in four different existing buildings in the compound.He is apparently concerned that it may lower the effectiveness of joint operations and affect the allies’ overall defense posture.

They have been in talks over the CFC issue in line with a broader scheme to move U.S. military bases in Seoul and north of the capital to Camp Humphreys, a sprawling U.S. military complex in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul.”(Gen. Abrams) has called on (his staff) to go back to the drawing board and explore various possibilities, including the relocation to the ministry compound,” a military source told Yonhap News Agency on the condition of anonymity.”

As he took the helm of the command and reviewed the plan, he apparently felt the need for the reconsideration,” the official added.What the commander wants is for the relocation plan to be reviewed, not for it to be immediately canceled.  The commander, who also leads the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) and U.N. Command, took office in November.

Alternative options include retaining the CFC in the current location in Yongsan, central Seoul, relocating it to Camp Humphreys or constructing a separate complex in the defense ministry. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but with the current ROK government it seems keeping the USFK headquarters on Yongsan Garrison would be difficult. Moving the headquarters to Camp Humphreys would create a geographical barrier between allied integration.  Plus big decisions are made in Seoul and thus staff will need to continuously go to Seoul from Camp Humphreys.  I guess we will see how this plays out.