Approached Agreement on Remaining U.S. Forces’ Land for 160,000-200,000 Pyong

Korea and the U.S. will have preparatory meetings for three days from November 3 in Washington DC before the Korea-U.S. Yearly Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) and discuss the issues of relocating military bases in Yongsan, Seoul and sending additional Korean troops to Iraq.

This meeting, preceding the SCM that will be held in Seoul on the November 17, will discuss the relocation of the Yongsan military base to Pyeongtaek and Osan-shi, Gyeonggi Province by the year 2006 and will coordinate the final terms of land capacity for the remaining bases such as the Korea-U.S. joint headquarters and the UN forces headquarters after the relocation, and also part of relocation expenses for which the Korean side is responsible.

The both parties are agreeing on a 160,000-200,000 pyong of reserved land for the remaining bases and expenses of $3-5 billion.

In addition, since both parties have also agreed in a recent administrative negotiation on comprehensively revising the unfair articles of Memorandums of Agreement (referred as MOA) and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that were signed in 1990, they will thus coordinate the final phrases in officially signing the documents of the SCM at this meeting.

It was known that the Korean delegate would meet with related officials from the U.S. Department of Defense during the meeting and share their opinions on current issues of the scope and nature of additional Korean troops to Iraq.

Cha Young-koo, policy director at the Ministry of National Defense (a lieutenant general), and Richard Rollins, assistant deputy minister of the U.S. Department of Defense, are attending this meeting as head delegates.

Sang-Ho Yun ysh1005@donga.com