≫ Members of the citizens’ committee against enlargement of the U.S. base in Pyeongtaek hold a demonstration against breaking ground of U.S. base enlargement construction on November 13, 2007.

Seoul will have to pay more than 8.9 trillion won(US$ 8.6 billion) in expenses for relocating the bases of United States Forces in Korea to Pyeongtaek. This figure is more than 3.3 trillion won higher than the previous year’s estimates.

These numbers result from an two-month inspection conducted by the National Defense Ministry which started in mid-March. The ministry predicted a lack of financial resources amounting to about 2.6 trillion won resulting from an unclear outlook on rezoning of the land and on its sale.

The ministry’s report noted that it will be necessary for the government to go to extreme measures in order to smoothly carry out the project, saying that the government should re-evaluate the financial resources needed to move the base while considering an increase in costs.

When it announced a master plan for relocation of the base in March last year, the ministry estimated the expense to be shouldered by Korea at nearly 5.6 trillion won but the figure has increased to about 7.9 trillion won due to additional cost for social overhead capital projects. Since the ministry added 1 trillion won for the construction of facilities to improve working conditions of American soldiers at the beginning of this year, the figure has increased to over 8.9 trillion won.

According to the ministry estimate, the nation will have to pay 3.3 trillion won more in a year. Adding 8.9 trillion won to be paid by Korea to the estimated 4.4 trillion won contributed by the U.S. (estimated at the announcement of the master plan in March last year) the total expenses for the relocation of the base are expected to reach about 12 to 13 trillion, compared to the initial estimate of 10 trillion won.

As the scale of the project gets larger and larger, there are likely to be difficulties in preparing the funds. The relocation project which was scheduled to complete in 2011-2012 will likely be delayed until 2015-2016.

A report issued by the USFK Base Relocation Project Management Group on June 8 said a service provider is reviewing the expenses and the time period necessary for the base relocation project, adding that the exact costs and term will be announced through consultations between Seoul and Washington based on results of the review which will happen after August.