City protests US troop presence

By Jun Ji-hye

Dongducheon is stepping up its protests of the decision to keep some U.S. troops from the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division (2ID) stationed in the city in Gyeonggi Province, north of Seoul.

In a first step, the city government will withdraw staff who are dispatched to Camp Casey to provide U.S. soldiers and civilian employees with services to register their vehicles here.

“We gave the 2ID advance notice Friday,” a city official said. “Staff will withdraw from the camp next Monday.”

The decision is meant to cause inconvenience to U.S. soldiers and civilians as from now on they will have to visit City Hall to register their vehicles.

Under the Korea-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which governs the legal status of U.S. military personnel here, owners of the vehicles covered by SOFA are exempt from tax payments required by Korean laws.

The city signed a memorandum of understanding with 2ID in November 2013 to offer administrative support to soldiers and civilians living there to register their vehicles at Camp Casey.

“For now, we will stop such support to pressure the government and 2ID to accept our request, as they have been uncooperative with us,” the official said.

The move comes as a plan to return Camp Castle, which is also in Dongducheon, to the city by the end of 2014 was postponed again, reportedly at the request of the U.S.

Dongducheon Mayor Oh Se-chang said in an interview that the city was planning to build a university in the area being vacated.

Under the Land Partnership Plan (LPP), drawn up by South Korea and the U.S. and ratified by the National Assembly 2002, the entire 2ID was scheduled to move to Pyeongtaek by 2016. The moving of Camp Castle was originally slated for 2006.

The official noted that the city will organize stronger legal protests until the government comes up with tangible measures to support its citizens, who he claimed have been economically and mentally victimized due to American military installations there over the past 60 years.

Along with the prompt return of Camp Castle, the city has also protested the decision to keep the 210th Armored Brigade at Camp Casey until the mid-2020s as part of an agreement with the U.S. to delay the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean troops to Seoul.

The U.S. agreed to this request from Seoul during annual talks between the two countries’ defense chiefs in October.

In November, Mayor Oh made a protest visit to Defense Minister Han Min-koo, calling for moving the armored brigade to Camp Hovey if it needs to remain in the city. He said that Camp Casey is located at the center of the city, impeding the city’s development plans, while Camp Hovey is in a mountainous area.

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