By Lee Tae-hoon
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) deceived the public in the 2000s over the actual cost Seoul should shoulder for the relocation of U.S. military bases in Korea, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
A classified document created by the U.S. Embassy in Korea in April 2007 reveals that the ministry deliberately gave the public and the National Assembly a false estimate on the cost of relocation.
“In a recent MND press release, the ROKG estimated that it would pay about half of the total cost of about $10 billion to relocate U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to Pyeongtaek/Camp Humphreys,” the then U.S. ambassador Alexander Vershbow said in the cable classified as confidential. “However, USFK estimates that the ROK share will be far more than half.”
Vershbow claimed that Korea’s contribution would be about 93 percent of the total cost and that the MND did not count burden-sharing costs (SMA: Special Measures Agreement) and ROK private-sector build-to-lease (BTL) construction which comes from its own budget.
“The ROKG has not yet informed the National Assembly and the Korean public of this understanding,” he said. “This could become a problem as construction at Pyeongtaek moves forward.”
Vershbow noted that USFK estimates that Korea’s share of the total cost would be $8.98 billion, compared with MND estimates of about $5 billion.
The former ambassador claimed in the dossier that USFK encouraged the MND to provide these details to the National Assembly and defend the position as important to the alliance, but it was of no avail.
“So far, however, MND has continued to put off this day of reckoning,” he said.
Another U.S. embassy document leaked by WikiLeaks shows that the U.S. government was frustrated by the Korean government’s reluctance to reveal the actual figure and misleading media reports over the relocation budget sharing.
“Although the ROK is aware of the much higher cost estimate, a Dec. 6, 2006 letter from Major General Park Kyung-seo, Chief Director of the USFK Relocation Office at MND, to USFK restates the ROK belief that its responsibility will total "approximately $1 billion for land purchase and $4.5 billion for the facilities," a classified embassy document dated on Dec. 20, 2006 claimed.
He reiterated that the difference between the total and the truer cost will no doubt be difficult for the ministry to explain to their elected officials.
“Of further concern to us is that attempts by the ROK to renegotiate its commitments through the media, rather than via close consultations with its ally, have become an all too common pattern by the South Korea government in recent years,” it said.