≫ On April 8, in front of the Defense Ministry, members of the civic organization Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea criticize the ministry for bearing the bulk of the costs involved with moving the USFK’s 2nd Infantry Division in Dongducheon and Uijeongbu.

The Hankyoreh Shinmun has confirmed that the relocation of United States Forces Korea to Pyeongtaek is set to be completed by 2019, seven years later than the originally planned timeframe of 2012, leading to concerns about the move incurring even greater costs than expected.

Minutes of an October 3 meeting of a regular special subcommittee of the Land Partnership Plan reviewed by The Hankyoreh on October 21 quote an American colonel with the last name Russell, the subcommittee’s USFK representative, as saying the move will be delayed by three years because of budgetary issues on the American side. He is quoted as saying that according to the Program Management Consortium report, the timetable for moving the USFK from Yongsan will be 2016 and the 2nd Infantry Division in Dongducheon and Uijeongbu will be done moving by 2019.

The Yongsan base would begin moving by 2012 and the move would be complete by 2016, while the 2nd Division would undergo the same process and be done moving by 2019, he was quoted as saying, adding that they think the 2nd Division could be moved earlier.

Delaying the move would invariably make the cost of moving snowball. In the original plan to move all the base facilities involved by 2012, the cost was set to be around 9.5 trillion won (US.2 billion), with the Korean government paying 4.6 trillion won of the burden and the United States paying 4.9 trillion won.

However, the PMC, which is overseeing the big move, produced a report in July indicating that if the relocation is moved to 2015, the combination of rising prices and construction costs would make the cost of the move increase to 13.3 trillion won, with Seoul paying 5.8 trillion won and Washington paying 7.5 trillion won.

“Delaying the move is inevitably going to lead to it being more expensive,” said Ko Yu-gyeong, general secretary of the Campaign to Eradicate USFK Crime. “The (USFK) is trying to use this as a way to pressure the Korean government to pay for more of the cost” of keeping the USFK in Korea.

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