The Seoul-based U.S. Eighth Army Command has started its move down to Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province, the South Korean Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

The U.S. Forces Korea is slated to move its forces from Seoul and northern Gyeonggi Province to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of the capital.

“Most of the (Seoul-based) troops, including the USFK command, will be moved by 2017,” the ministry said.

“Relocation of battalion or company-sized troops -- such as 94th Military Police Battalion -- have taken place since 2013. But this is the first time members of the Eighth Army Command, one of the key command facilities of the USFK, has been moved, marking the full-sale movement of the U.S. military.”

There are currently 20,000 soldiers in the Eighth Army, along with some 8,500 troops under other command including the U.S. Air Force based in Osan and the U.S. Navy in Busan.

The U.S. troops have been located in Yongsan since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice. The relocation was agreed with the South Korean counterpart in 2004.

Officials said that 300 members of the Eighth Army Command will move to Camp Humphreys from this month till February, 2017. The preparation for next year’s annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle Seoul-Washington joint military drills will also take place in Pyeongtaek.

Construction of the new Pyeongtaek base is about 89 percent complete, the ministry said. The base is expected to accommodate over 40,000 soldiers and their families upon completion, making it one of the largest military compounds in the world.

The 2nd Infantry Division, whose troops are located in northern Gyeonggi Province, is also to move to Pyeontaek from July to late 2017.

The relocation plan was originally scheduled to be completed by 2016, but was delayed a year due to several setbacks such as bankruptcy of a contracted construction company Keangnam Enterprises.

The agreement was reached during the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration, and was reportedly according to both the request of the Seoul government to ship out the base sitting in the heart of the capital and the U.S. military’s global defense posture review that sought to consolidate the troops at the new Pyeongtaek base. The then-government had said that Seoul and Washington will jointly shoulder the costs.

But there have been allegations by the civic groups that the relocation plan was an unfair deal that only attended to the needs of the USFK, not the Korean government.

A diplomatic cable revealed by WikiLeaks indicated that the Roh administration had downplayed the relocation costs it would shoulder, adding to the controversy behind the relocation. The then-Lee Myung-bak administration had denied such suspicions.

The two sides had also agreed that the U.S. has no obligation to restore the environmental damages in the Yongsan base site, sparking off more criticism.

Last year, the government released plans to pump 5 trillion won ($4.2 billion) to develop the Yongsan military base site.

City governments in the Gyeonggi Province are also planning to set up projects such as establishing medical complexes and tourist sites.

But the plan also sparked concerns that thousands of Korean workers at the military bases will be laid off.

The USFK Korean Employees Union has started a one-person protest at Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province. It plans to hold a mass rally in front of the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan, adjacent to the USFK headquarters.


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)