Posted May. 30, 2011 05:46,
The government and the U.S. military will conduct from this week a joint study on Camp Carroll, a U.S. Army base in the township of Waegwan in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang Province, where defoliant is believed to be buried.
The level of suspicion over the alleged burial of Agent Orange at the camp the probe will clarify is attracting interest.
The Environment Ministry said Sunday, A 20-member Korean investigation team and the U.S. military will jointly conduct a probe inside Camp Carroll this week. The team consists of government officials, including those from the Environment Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the Prime Ministers Office, and experts including environment studies professors and representatives of residents.
The Environment Ministry added, We are discussing details on methods and schedules and will conduct the study inside the camp by Wednesday.
The joint investigation team will seek to pinpoint the exact location of sites where drums containing defoliant were buried by using an earth surface penetration radar. Despite testimonies by retired American veterans on the time of the burial in 1978 and the U.S. militarys announcement that chemicals buried in the camp were relocated to other areas in 1979 and 1980, critical information have yet to be disclosed, including what types of chemicals were buried and how they were handled after burial.
Once the burial sites are located, the joint probe team will collect and analyze samples, including soil, at the sites. Before that, it will collect underground water at five sites off the camp Monday and see if harmful substances including dioxin have influenced outside the camp.
Investigators collected samples of underground water at four locations around Camp Carroll Friday in the first phase of its probe.
An Environment Ministry source said, If we look inside the camp, we can find answers to a whole slew of questions including whether defoliant was buried and if the area was contaminated with dioxin.
Civic groups and the city council in Incheon and political parties urged the Korean government Sunday to conduct a thorough investigation into suspicions over treatment of chemical substances suspected as defoliant in the U.S. militarys Camp Market in Incheons Bupyeong district.
The Incheon city government will probe sites outside the camp to check for contamination of the toxic chemicals polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxide this week.