Master Plan on Yongsan Base Relocation Given by the U.S.

The Ministry of National Defense has received from the United States a master plan of the Yongsan base relocation indicating what units are subject to the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) reduction plan.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Nam Dae-youn said yesterday, “The U.S. sent us a master plan regarding the arrangement of buildings within the new military base. From this, we can figure out what units will leave Korea, because it tells us which units each building within the base will be used by.”

The Ministry of National Defense was reported to interpret this plan as the list of units subject to USFK reduction, and to be adjusting the positions of the relevant government ministries. Because of this, it called for postponement of the Future of the Alliance (FOTA) Policy Initiative talks, which had been scheduled for yesterday, and the U.S. accepted the request.

The Ministry of National Defense did not reveal the size of the base that the U.S. master plan was based on. However, military sources presume that the master plan has a high probability of containing the locations of incidental facilities for the 1st brigade of the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division on 3,600,000 pyong of land, which the U.S. had demanded.

Meanwhile, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless, the chief U.S. delegate of FOTA talks, who came to Korea on Sunday, paid a courtesy visit yesterday to his new Korean counterpart, Ahn Kwang-chan, the head of Defense Ministry policy bureau.

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“His visit was simply an informal meeting to see each other, and the discussion on the Yongsan base relocation and USFK reduction issues are in progress at the working level,” said Ahn. “It is more important to narrow the opinion gap at the working level and reach an agreement in the 10th FOTA talks in mid-July than to deal with them between the two chief delegates.”

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com