NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CRITICIZES ROKG FOR MISHANDLING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 002081

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/11/2017
TAGS: MCAP MARR PREL PARM KS
SUBJECT: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CRITICIZES ROKG FOR MISHANDLING
USFK CAMP RETURNS

Classified By: Pol M/C Joseph Y. Yun. Reasons 1.4 (b,d).


1. (U) Summary. On June 25-26, the ROK National Assembly's
Committee on Environment and Labor held a hearing on the
clean up of returned USFK bases, expressing strongly critical
views on the environmental conditions of those bases.
Current and former top officials from the ROKG, including
Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and Defense Minister Kim
Jang-soo, defended their handling of the camp returns
process, arguing that the ROKG had been bound by requirements
of the SOFA agreements and desired to avoid damaging the
U.S.-ROK Alliance with continued, contentious debate. The
National Assembly released a report on the hearing on June
29, identifying "problem" areas in the camp return process
and calling on the ROKG to pursue future returns based on
domestic ROK environmental standards, rather than the SOFA,
and revise the SOFA environmental procedures. Although the
report's recommendations are not legally-binding on the ROKG,
they are likely to complicate the way forward on future camp
returns. END SUMMARY.

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MND AND MOFAT DEFEND USFK CAMP RETURNS
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2. (U) Former Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-Woong and current
Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo testified on June 25.
Representative Woo Won-shik (an independent lawmaker who
recently left the pro-government Uri party) claimed that 10
of the 23 U.S. bases returned to Korea had the remains of
electronic transformers containing levels of toxic chemicals
such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) exceeding the
nation's environmental standards. Woo also argued that PCBs
were included in a list of toxic chemicals USFK had pledged
to clean up before the bases were returned. The most vocal
critic to date, Woo then charged that camp return discussions
in the Security Policy Initiative (SPI) forum were invalid as
they violated SOFA agreements. He called for nullifying the
base return pact and renegotiating the matter.


3. (SBU) DM Kim Jang-soo maintained that it was his personal
decision to accept the returned camps, as well as any ROKG
costs for additional environmental remediation, in order to
prevent the camp returns issue from causing further damage to
the U.S.-ROK Alliance. The discourse between National
Assembly lawmakers and MND officials became increasingly
tense through the course of the hearings, with lawmakers at
one point calling MND officials "ignorant." NA lawmakers
also accused MND of pushing a unilateral environmental deal
with the U.S. and pandering to U.S. demands despite what they
deemed to be an "astronomical" cost involved in cleaning up
the camps.


4. (SBU) Foreign Minister Song and DG Cho Byung-jae testified
on June 26. FM Song's introductory remarks delineated the
evolution of the SOFA, including how the original agreements
had been amended to account for the changing needs of the
South Korean public. (NOTE: This includes the non-binding
2001 Memorandum of Special Understandings (MOSU) on
Environmental Protection which confirms U.S. policy to
promptly undertake to remedy contamination caused by U.S.
Armed Forces in Korea that poses a "KISE," or "Known,
Imminent and Substantial Endangerment" to human health, and
to consider additional measures required to protect human
health.) Song, in his introduction, emphasized that while
the results of contamination remediation on the U.S. side did
not satisfy the standards set by South Korean laws, it was
more important to note that the ROK is unique in that the
U.S. government invests funds from its own budget into
providing environmental remediation at its bases. He noted
as an example that South Korea would not send troops to a
country and expect its troops to comply strictly with
domestic law, so it is therefore not reasonable to expect the
U.S. to comply with the ROK domestic standard for
environmental remediation. Rather, Song noted, it is more
appropriate for the two countries to comply with their
established agreements. FM Song emphasized that the ROKG had
done its best to secure the return of the camps. He stressed
that the U.S. had done more in terms of environmental
remediation in Korea than in any other country where the U.S.
forces were located, referring specifically to the MOSU and

the 8 alpha items conducted by the U.S. (NOTE: 8 alpha
refers to the stipulation that the U.S. clean up eight types
of equipment/facilities, including oil storage tanks, used
transformers, and air conditioning/heating systems, while the
alpha refers to bioslurping, or eliminating petroleum "free
product" floating on underground water.)


5. (U) MOFAT provided copies of the SOFA Joint Committee
documents on the camp returns for the National Assembly
members to review at the hearing and retrieved all of the
copies at the end. The Committee Chair Hong Jun-pyo (a GNP
presidential candidate) acknowledged that while MOFAT did not
"release" the SOFA documents in question, they did "provide"
them, which could be interpreted to have sufficed for the NA
requirement calling for the production of such documents for
Committee examination.


6. (C) In the following Q&A session, FM Song referred to
several new MOFAT proposals, requesting consultations in the
Joint Committee to 1) revise the 1967 Procedures for
Operation of the Joint Committee and Subcommittees, which
require both sides' prior agreement to publicly release SOFA
documents; 2) clarify the environmental standards for camp
returns as specified in the 2001 Memorandum of Special
Understandings on Environmntal Protection; and 3) improve
the Tab A process for future camp returns, specifying that
ROK agencies be allowed an additional pre-return ROKG visit
to confirm the environmental condition of camps. MOFAT
contacts characterized their proffered actions as
"non-commitments" because of the lack of legal force, but
recognized that ROK ministries would feel obligated to comply
if it was a NA statement. In response to several lawmakers,
questions about revising the SOFA, Song immediately dismissed
the inquiries by stating it would be unrealistic to attempt
to do so.


7. (C) However, the National Assembly's Environment and Labor
Committee released a report on June 29 that criticized ROKG
handling of camp returns. The report also outlined three
objectives for future negotiations on camp returns, calling
for 1) remediation of U.S. bases to be conducted in
accordance with current SOFA environmental provisions based
on ROK domestic environmental standards and subject to ROKG
verification; 2) the ROKG to begin negotiations for SOFA
revision as soon as possible; and 3) the costs for
remediation of the already returned camps to be deducted from
ROKG contributions to the Special Measures Agreement (SMA).
The report is not legally binding and is not the view of the
entire National Assembly, only that of a majority of the
15-member committee. According to MOFAT SOFA Affairs
Division contacts, the report temporarily allows for
sustained camp returns under the current SOFA provisions, but
MOFAT may eventually need to take steps toward proposing SOFA
revisions to placate the National Assembly.

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LIMITED PRESS COVERAGE
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8. (SBU) The South Korean public's attention to the
environmental condition of the returned camps was piqued most
recently with video clips of National Assembly lawmakers
igniting wooden sticks that had been dipped in oil found in
the ground at one of the returned camps. In the lead up to
the NA hearings, the press reports portrayed MND and MOFAT as
unilaterally accepting the camp returns to appease the U.S.,
implying that the ROKG was compelled to acquiesce to U.S.
demands in the SPI, instead of forcing USFK to keep up its
end of the bargain on environmental remediation. Since the
hearings, mainstream press coverage of the issue has been
limited. A recent Korea Times editorial was critical of the
financial repercussions of the ROKG's decision to accept
return of the camps, and an editorial in the left-leaning
Hankyoreh newspaper called for an overhaul of the SOFA
agreement that would require USFK environmental remediation
to the level of ROK domestic standards; the Hankyoreh
editorial painted USFK as a criminal polluter by resurrecting
images from the hit South Korean film "The Host," in which a
mutant monster terrorizes Seoul after the U.S. military
(allegedly) dumped toxic chemicals into the Han River. A
recent public opinion poll also indicated that 51.3 percent

of the ROK public believes that the U.S. should pay the cost
of environmental remediation at the camps.

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COMMENT
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9. (C) MND and MOFAT officials managed to pull off a
middle-of-the-road strategy, defending their agencies'
handling of the camp returns process, making both lawmakers
and USFK partially, but far from completely, satisfied. In
taking personal responsibility for the "sake of the
Alliance," DM Kim lived up to earlier promises to the U.S. to
take the heat on camp returns, but also told the NA that the
ROKG had no better choice than to accept the responsibility
for the camps. FM Song's approach was more legalistic,
giving a detailed overview of the SOFA documents governing
camp returns, but not quite explicitly acknowledging that the
camp returns were handled in compliance with the required
environmental procedures as outlined in the SOFA. Overall,
the SOFA itself was given the bulk of the blame by the ROKG
and the NA Committee. We can now expect MOFAT officials to
at least go through the act of pursuing SOFA revisions or
improvements in the implementation of the camp returns
process in order to placate National Assembly critics. END
COMMENT.
VERSHBOW