U.S. Accepts Camp Coiner Location for New U.S. Embassy

The United States has disclosed it intention to accept the suggestion that Camp Coiner become the alternative to the former Kyunggi Woman’s High School premises, which had been originally designated as the place for the brand-new building of the U.S. embassy in Korea and its employers’ abode.

Kim Sook, a director general of the North American department of the foreign ministry who is visiting the U.S. on her business trip to participate in the 8th Future Korea-US Alliance Policy Visualization Conference disclosed on May 7 that she confirmed this fact from the U.S. official in charge of the state-owned property section of the State Department.

“He said that though Korea’s Cultural Property Management Bureau has not yet made any decision, the U.S. government is inclined to move the embassy out to Camp Coiner, as the premise of the former Kyunggi Woman’s High School has been regarded as being practically impossible for the future place of the embassy,” stated Kim Sook. She added that “It is assumed that the U.S. government regards Camp Coiner as the most appropriate place that can satisfy the minimum area for the safety distance from the street and the place for setting up the all necessary facilities of the embassy.”

As for the “Minimum” area requested by the U.S. side, one of the relevant Korean officials said that “We will convert the dimensions of the former Kyunggi Woman’s High School premises, which is 4500-pyoung large, to offer the necessary area to the U.S. embassy. If more grounds are needed, the Korean government will purchase the land to offer.”

On the other hand, on the scale of expenditures needed to move the base of the U.S. forces in Korea out of Seoul, a high-level Korean official explained that it can be altered flexibly based on the U.S. forces’ reorganization program in the peninsula as the two sides have already consented to reflect the changeable future conditions such as the amount of U.S. forces in Korea.

Soon-Taek Kwon maypole@donga.com