Also Turning Ugly: USFK Relocation

I wish I had the time to cover the latest Camp Humphreys relocation protests in the detail they deserve, given that I spent seven months of my life there defending young, misunderstood soldiers who were wrongly accused of various things. Humphreys, one of the least pleasant sites in the USFK portfolio, has its advantages: cheap land, proximity to Osan Air Base, and a location south of Seoul and out of artillery range. It makes sense to move most of the U.S. Army forces there — that is, if you think they should be there at all.

(There are some great old 1970’s-vintage pics of Humphreys here; Anjung-ri had changed remarkably little when I first showed up there.)

The Dong-a Ilbo has this extremely detailed account of the running battle that took place there earlier this week. I see the protestors as two groups — local farmers and hard-core leftists from Seoul. Of the latter, my sympathies (or lack thereof) are probably clear enough by now. Of the former, though, I have to say that I was very saddened to see this:

In Daechu-ri and Dodu-ri, where residents mounted particularly stubborn resistance, only 51 percent of the 297 households agreed to the terms of the government’s land purchases. The rest has been forced to accept the government’s offers by the court. At present, approximately 700,000 pyeong is deposited with the court.

The holdout residents complainingly point out, “The compensation from the government is about 140,000 won per pyeong. But land price in neighboring areas, which do not belong to the relocation plan, is 200,000 to 300,000 won per pyeong. We don’t want to leave the place where we have lived generation after generation.

The Defense Ministry, however, responds with, “The ministry has offered a variety of options, but it’s the local residents who reject them. It is the “˜anti-American military presence’ outsiders who cause a stir among the locals most of the time.

It’s always bad when people are moved away from their homes and land for any reason, but it is a genuine outrage if they’re also being financially ruined. Under the circumstances, I’d protest, too. I’m sure the leftists would still try to exploit them if the compensation were more than adequate. They’re there because they hate America. But if the South Korean government wants a big U.S. base on its soil, it owes its citizens fair compensation.

If anyone has any more detailed knowledge, by all means let me know. Korea isn’t a third-world backwater, and its government has both the means and the obligation to take care of its own citizens. Of course, it would obviously prefer to have the Americans not only defend their country, supply the manpower, gas, ammo, equipment, etc., but also pay that increased compensation, and of course, the messes we are leaving behind us.

Traditionally, the way this worked was as follows. First, the Koreans would make a series of demands, reasonable and otherwise. Second, the Americans would make a counteroffer. Third, the Koreans would leak a very possibly distorted characterization of the U.S. position to reliable journalists and civic groups, which would then show up and protest against the “colonialist” American demands. Finally, the Americans would give the Koreans most of what they wanted. Here’s a living, breathing example. Soon after we completed all of these SOFA revisions, the Korean side seemingly wanted to renegotiate most of them. Finally, it seems the U.S. side is tired of the old game:

Speaking at a meeting of the Korea Retired Generals and Admirals Association, General Bell said the handover of the former bases is being complicated by Seoul’s demands that the United States repair any environmental damage in the bases to be relocated from northern Gyeonggi province and Seoul city to more southern locations.

A Korean translation of the general’s comments was posted on the association’s Web site yesterday.

General Bell complained that U.S. maintenance of empty bases now costs $500,000 per month while the whole question of an environmental cleanup is being debated. He pointed to precedents in Germany and Japan, where environmental damage repair is a host-country obligation.

The two sides agreed to add environmental clauses to the Status of Forces Agreement in 2001, one that says the United States will “respect” Korean environmental laws. An official at the Defense Ministry’s environmental office said the whole matter is negotiable.

Got that? What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is negotiable.

The Ministry of Environment says that the polluter should pay. The defense minister, Yoon Kwang-ung, has reportedly been pushing the Environment Ministry to strike an agreement on the matters, but negotiations are still stalled, as they have been for several years. But whatever the reason for the delay, a Korean military official said yesterday, the problem has raised U.S. suspicions that Seoul is using the matter to boost its political standing with environmentalists.”The U.S. thinks that the Korean government is not really making any effort to stop civic groups’ activities,” he said.

Eureka.

4 Responses

  1. One of the blogs, or maybe it was an article, said that the civic groups were the ones giving the land price figures which the media was reporting, and the figures they were giving were high end estimates of what the value of the land was post-decision to move Yongsan there — which of course automatically meant land speculation not only in the area where the government was going to buy it, but all around the future perimeter of the base where the land values had gone up considerably because the bases will generate so much business.

    Another factor I am sure that is in play is who owns the land and who simply farms it.

    My wife’s family has been moved off their land twice since 2000. Once to make way for a road and the 2nd time for the city could expand with yet another set of high rise apartment buildings.

    In both cases, they owned and had built the houses they were living in, but they did not own the land — so the amount of compensation they were given was not as high as for the land owner — but in both cases they were able to work with the money and rebuild or buy a new home.

    on the Pyongtaek news —- I plan to do a review of it, but not until after it has played out.

    I am going back to that style over at http://www.usinkorea.org. It suits me better. I don’t like trying to give running commentary on something when it isn’t exactly clear how it will play out or what is going on.

    I will work on putting up new videos as I gather enough that seems like working on.

  2. The price the hate groups are putting out is the price of the land after the Yongsan move was announced. The ROK government is only giving them the price of the land at the market value before the land speculation. Plus the ROK government is offering them farming land just a little ways to the west of Camp Humphreys near Seosan for them to continue their farming activities.

    The farmers holding out with the anti-US hate groups in my opinion have nothing to lose. They protest and make a scene, they know the ROK government won’t do anything to them, and maybe they get more money for it. Absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.

  3. That is hitting the nail on the head.

    It makes sense for the farmers to throw in their lot with the hate groups.

    It would be a different story if the ROK government would throw a good number of them into jail for a few hours and process them for fines (which the Korean courts would hopefully uphold).

    If it started costing a good chunk of the protesters a $1,000 each time they decided to beat up on the riot police and others, it could have an effect.

    Since the Korea Teachers Union was recently reported to have the largest coffers of any union group —

    —-I am pretty sure the Priest I and II and the Mad Monk and the others can affort the $10,000 fines the press recently mentioned —- and that is of course if the fines don’t get tossed out as they have in the past.

    I was never able to find out for sure —

    but I believe the farmers and land owners who held out in Wonju did end up losing out.

    USFK and the ROK government spent some effort explaining the compensation procedurs and trying to get them to file, but a good number through in their lot with the hate groups, but when USFk announced both Wonju bases would close, the groups pulled up stakes (literally) and moved on.

    By that time, the legal time frame for applying claims had passed.

  4. 1 acre = 1200 pyeong. $1 = 1000 won (roughly). 140,000 won per pyeong translates to $168,000 per acre. This is pretty expensive farm land. (Upstate New York farm land goes for about $2,000 an acre).

    700,000 pyeong distributed over 297 households represents an average landholding of 2 acres per household. This means each household gets about $340,000.

    My proposal? Give these households green cards (to be deducted from the Korean immigration quota) so they can start new lives farming in New York state. $40,000 will buy them a 20 acre parcel. The rest they can spend on farm equipment. They’ll be wealthier than the average American farmer – that’s for sure.