YONHAP NEWS

Korea to bear majority of USFK relocation cost

   WASHINGTON, Mach 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has agreed to pay the majority of the expenses for moving U.S. forces out of its capital of Seoul to the tune of approximately US$10 billion, the top U.S. commander there told the House budgeting committee.

   Gen. Burwell Bell, head of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), also said the two countries agreed to equally split the cost of relocating the 2nd Infantry Division.

   The amounts he suggested are over the amount that the South Korean government has been indicating.

   As part of an overall realignment of their military alliance, South Korea and the U.S. decided to move U.S. forces out of the Yongsan Garrison in Seoul and relocate them southward.

   Some 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in the Asian nation, a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War. The number will be further reduced to 25,000 by end of this year. The 2nd Infantry Division, the unit that is the most forward-deployed to the inter-Korean border, would also be relocated southward.

   "South Korea agreed to shoulder the majority of the infrastructure expenses associated with moving our forces out of Yongsan Garrison farther south in their country, down to a place called Camp Humphreys at Pyeongtaek," Bell told the House Appropriations Committee last week. The transcript was made available over the weekend.

   "And already, in that physical process, South Korea has spent about $2 billion in an effort that's going to cost them around $10 billion," the general said. "It's of the magnitude of the Guam move."
The U.S., on its part, agreed to provide family housing and officer quarters at Camp Humphreys, estimated at about $1.4 billion over a 15-year period, Bell said.

   In March last year, the South Korean government said it expected to pay about $5.6 billion to move out of the Yongsan facilities.

   The USFK commander said that the two countries have agreed to split the cost 50-50 to relocate the 2nd Infantry Division, and that part of the money will come from the host-nation fund provided by the South Korean side.

   Seoul's position has been that it would pay to move out of Yongsan Garrison since it had requested it, but that Washington should be responsible for relocating the infantry division since that was the request of the U.S. This argument was behind South Korea's opposition to using host-nation funds, used to maintain U.S. forces in the country, for relocation costs.

   "Our agreement is about a 50-50 split, and so what I've done is take 50 percent of the cost to move the remaining force that is north of Seoul to its garrison location of the future south of Seoul," Bell said.

   "The other 50 percent, we need to use host-nation funds for, and we will."
ldm@yna.co.kr
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