U.S. Requesting Korea to Pay for the Construction of USFK Housing Facilities

Since the U.S. requested Korea to increase the `military construction’ budget in order to improve the United States Forces in Korea (USFK) housing facility environment in a large scale, the negotiation between Korea and the U.S for Korea’s defense budget portion is known to have been in trouble as of August 1.

A senior official in Ministry of National Defense (MND) said, ``After USFK established a plan to improve the working environments, they laid out new constructions, as well as renovations; in particular, in the housing facilities for married personnel. Regarding the project, USFK asked Korea to pay for 2/3 of the necessary budget.``

Such defense budget assignment is composed of 4 items;

Salaries for Korean employees in USFK (support in Won), military construction for non-combating military installations (support in dollar), Combined Defense Improvement Project (CDIP) for military facilities (eg. runway construction), and logistical assistances for ammunition management and equipment maintenance for wartime reserves.

The official responded to this request negatively, saying ``Although USFK requests Korea to increase the military construction budget in a large scale even by sacrificing CDIP or logistic assistances, such items are indispensable for keeping the combating powers of Korea and USFK. ``

According to USFK’s negotiation proposals, they requested Korea to increase the next year’s budget by more than 30 percent and to make a 5-year agreement, which appears impractical in Korea’s point of view.

Related to these, US Congress had recommended Department of State to increase the responsibilities of Korea from 41 percent of the whole budget that covers all direct or indirect costs up to more than 75 percent, by which Japan supports the US Forces in Japan.

Meanwhile, USFK provide 10 percent of 21,000 currently married personnel with housing facilities. To enhance the housing environments, they planned to increase the housing support ratios to 25 percent in 2010, and then 50 percent in 2020, which is now under construction, renovation or lease. First 1,500 houses are being prepared in Camp Humphries, located in Pyungtaek, Kyunggi.

klimt@donga.com