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Korea, US to co-probe Agent Orange dumping
By Lee Hyo-sik
South Korea and the United States have agreed to launch a joint investigation into allegations of the massive dumping of a chemical defoliant here by the United States Forces Korea (USFK) more than 30 years ago, an official said Sunday.
Investigators from both Korea and the U.S. will work together to probe the alleged dumping of Agent Orange at a U.S. military base, Camp Carroll, in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province, in order to cope with the matter in an effective and quick manner, Yook Dong-han, a senior official from the Prime Minister’s Office, said.
The Ministry of Environment said the investigation team will collect samples of the underground water and streams surrounding the compound to check for contamination by Agent Orange.
Four tributaries of the Nakdong River, the main source of potable water for Daegu, Busan and other Gyeongsang regions, flow through the compound.
The ministry also said that it will drill 24 tube wells in the areas surrounding the camp to collect underground water samples, today as well as gather soil samples to check for dioxin, a cancer-causing chemical contained in Agent Orange. Residents living close to the suspected burial site will be surveyed concerning water use and health.
Separately, the Public Institute of Health and Environment of North Gyeongsang Province, Saturday, took samples of five underground sources of drinking water in three regions around the U.S. base for component analysis.
Agent Orange is a toxic defoliant used during the Vietnam War, and the U.S. military admitted to having used it around the Demilitarized Zone in the late 1960s.
The shocking revelations surfaced last week after Phoenix-based broadcaster KPHO reported that former U.S. soldiers stationed at Camp Carroll said they buried 250 drums of leftover Agent Orange in the camp compound in 1978. One of the veterans claimed that the U.S. military buried the toxic chemical near a helipad inside the compound.
It is suspected that the poisonous chemical might have leaked out of the buried drums.
Meanwhile, Green Korea United and other civic groups will hold a joint press conference in front of the U.S. Embassy in downtown Seoul today to condemn the alleged burial.