Readjustment of USFK Land To Be Settled On Nov.

Korea and the U.S. decided to settle the agreement of the joint land management plan (LPP) for the return of the unused land of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) and the overall rearrangement of the USFK`s bases in the ROK-US Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Washington at the beginning of November.

A high-ranking official of the Ministry of Defense told that Minister of Defense Kim Dong-Shin and U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld made an agreement on this matter in the meeting last week. ``The working-level meeting of the ROK-US special negotiation team has made the considerable progress, and it is concretizing the blueprint for the merger and abolition of USFK bases, and the annual program for practice,`` he said.

The USFK has notified the Ministry of Defense of its intention to return 40 million pyong of currently used land for the minor bases and the unused land. And in exchange for the return, the USFK requested the Ministry of Defense to grant 6 million pyong of land.

The Ministry of Defense is pursuing the plan to purchase the 2.06 million pyong of land which is 33 percent of the land that the USFK had requested until 2005.

Both parties in principle agreed to collaboratively make efforts to settle the negotiation on the shares of the defense expenses until September.

Lee Chol-Hi klimt@donga.com