Re-negotiation of the US base expansion plan is inevitable
A revision of the agreement will be necessary when the deadline for the US base expansion plan is delayed.
The cost for the base expansion and restructuring is 50 times more the maximum cost that was agreed on.
(Hankyereh21, December 2006)
translation by Seoul Radical Exchange (www.seoulidarity.net)
Focus on clause 3, article 2 of the agreement: “the transfer will be completed by the end of 2008”.
Among some of estimates that tell when is the deadline of the transfer, the one thing we can be sure of is that it will not be completed in 2008. It’s very probable that it will be completed after 2011. A more definite deadline will be estimated after the Master Plan (MP) is announced at the end of this year (2006) or early next year, but there is one factor that lets us guess by how long the deadline will be delayed. On November 17, 2005, the US Corps of Engineers made a contract with the Seohui construction company for construction of basic facilities, to put in the landfill preparatory to the expansion of Camp Humphrey. The total area that will be covered with landfill is 28 million pyeong (228.72 acres, 925624m2) of which the total area for the base expansion is more than 380 million pyeong (3104 acres, 12562040 m2). An official of this company said, “The deadline for construction is 1,145 days after the beginning, and we’re doing some preliminary work aimed at starting this construction in January next year (2007), so the laying of the landfill for at most a tenth of the total land for expansion will be finished around March 2010.
However, the schedule and process for transferring the US base are determined by law. Clause 3, article 2 of the agreement says that the transfer will be completed by the end of 2008. Therefore, the news about the delay of the US base transfer till 2011 contradicts the agreement. The agreement loses its legal validity. National Assembly (NA) member Rim Jongseok of the Parliamentary UFT Commission (Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade) said, “If the deadline is delayed, that’s beyond the boundary of what the US and Korea agreed on. So re-negotiation is unavoidable.” NA member Choi Jaecheon agreed. As an ex-lawyer, he is a legal expert who was formerly the secretary of the legislative judiciary committee.
The cost of the base restructuring will exceed 300-400 billion won (300-400 million dollars)-- 50 times the maximum cost that was agreed on.
NA member Choi says that “It is preposterous to have no exact figures of the total cost of the relocation plan, even though it is a huge national project that will cost a trillion won (a billion dollars) of the taxpayers’ money. There is only one provision that mentions the specific figures, limiting Korea’s share of the base relocation costs in the UA. Part A of clause 3, article 5 of the financial convenience reads as follows: “According to the Master Plan (MP), Korea shall provide new basic facilities equipped with C4I capacities (command, control, communication, computers and information) and shall transfer the present equipment. Some of the equipment, which is expected to be more expensive to repair than to buy, shall be new. However, Korea’s share of the cost of these replacements cannot exceed 9 million dollars.”
Will public hearings be held?
Surprisingly, however, according to government officials, the estimated cost of C4I allegedly would be approximately 300-400 billion dollars; it is likely to cost as much as 50 times more than the maximum proportion indicated in the agreement. An Uri Party spokesman says, “The US firmly insists on installing new facilities regardless of Korea’s legally fixed proportion of the base relocations costs.”
The government’s irresponsible and insincere attitude makes the situation worse. In particular, the National Assembly has not scheduled a hearing on the US base relocation. Until now it has delayed the hearing because of the major party refuses, saying that the hearing is likely to hurt the US-ROK alliance. Kwon Youngkil of the Democratic Labor Party, who has constantly demanded that a hearing be held, said, “The agreement that was passed without public oversight by the UFT Commission, but not by the National Assembly, has to be reported and disclosed during the hearing.”
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Base Expansion will be delayed until 2013
From www.ohmynews.com Jan.20th 2007 Kim Taekyeong
translation by Seoul Radical Exchange (www.seoulidarity.net)
-According to the master plan, as it was reported to the National Assembly, the deadline for the relocation of the US military to the Pyeongtaek base will definitely be set back to 2013.
-The total cost of relocating the US military installations comes to 10 trillion won (10 billion dollars) and the Korean share of the cost is about 5 trillion won (5 billion dollars).
Specifically, the cost of construction is $2.46 billion.
Engineering work will cost $0.8 million; blueprints, architectural plans, etc. - $0.3 billion; management / administrative costs - $0.23 billion; purchasing lands - $1 billion; C4I - $381 million, the cost will come to 50 times more than the maximum cost than agreed on as Korean’s share.
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US government pushes the cost of base expansion onto Korea
Voice of the People January 20, 2007 (summary). Seo Jeonghwan
Vop.or.kr
translation by Seoul Radical Exchange (www.seoulidarity.net)
A Korean Ministry of National Defense official said that the US would charge $3.5~4.5 billion for the relocation, but this amount includes an annual subsidy paid by Korea to the US for Korean defense. In short, Koreans are paying money to the US and the money will be used by the US to pay for the relocation. In the new agreement on the subsidy for defense, the Korean government will pay about $730 million as of the end of last year (2006).
The Korean government pays a subsidy to the US for military maintenance of the USFK. The total subsidy is $730 million per year. The US can use 40% of this amount for relocation costs (which is not what the money is for).
The US spends 60% for military maintenance.
The documentation on relocation costs and Korea’s share of the costs doesn’t reveal the real amounts to be paid, or the real proportion that Korea has to pay.
The Ministry of National Defense official says that the US is spending $3.5~4.5 billion for relocation costs.
He calculated how much of this is actually spent by Korea.
40% of the annual subsidy is $280 million (from the new negotiated agreement) in 2007-2008.
The relocation deadline will be 2013.
The US can use 40% of the Korean subsidy for 7 years (2007~2013).
The total amount of this is $2 billion.
It is possible to assume that if the US spends the money all economically costs will be held down, but we can’t expect that it will really happen.
The USFK commander, Bell, was angry about the delay in the relocation deadline.
It is said that he found out about the delay from the Korean media.
He wants to turn the situation around and press the Korean politicians to correct this situation.
The master plan had already been released, so he probably already knew about the delay.
His real motive for speaking as he did is to obtain an increase in the subsidy that Korea pays to the US for military maintenance.
Thus Korea will be responsible for $7.5~8 billion out of $10 billion.
(The US is spending so much for Iraq that they want to save money where they can, and is trying to make the Korean government more than was agreed on.)
A $2 billion gap remains. 20% of the cost is still undecided.
If the US pays only 6% of the costs, who will pay the 14% left? Bell will press Korea to pay more to the US for military maintenance. |
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