Relocation of US forces going into full swing
By Jun Ji-hye
The United States Forces Korea (USFK) has begun moving its main contingent from Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul, to Pyeongtaek, southern Gyeonggi Province, as part of a massive $10.8 billion relocation project, according to the Ministry of National Defense, Thursday.
The ministry’s USFK relocation task force said that some 300 general staff from the Eighth Army, the main USFK unit stationed in Yongsan, will relocate to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, by February 2017 as the construction of its new headquarters has been completed.
“After its relocation, the contingent will prepare for the allies’ two annual spring military exercises ― Key Resolve and Foal Eagle ― before receiving the entire Eighth Army forces in the new headquarters by the first half of 2017,” the ministry’s USFK Base Relocation Office said in a release.
Korea and the U.S. previously signed two major relocation plans ― the Yongsan Relocation Plan (YRP) and the Land Partnership Plan (LPP). The YRP is to vacate Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul, relocating everything including USFK and the Eighth Army headquarters to Pyeongtaek, while the LPP will redeploy the 2nd Infantry Division (2ID), now stationed north of Seoul, also to Pyeongtaek.
Parts of the USFK have been moving to the provincial city, located 70 kilometers south of the capital, since 2013, but this is the first time that the general staff relocates.
The relocation office said that the allies had completed 89 percent of the construction work as of May to transform Camp Humphreys into a gigantic base that will be three times its old size and equipped with up-to-date facilities.
“Some 560 construction companies and 8,000 workers are putting the finishing touches to the construction,” the office said.
The 2ID stationed in Uijeongbu and Dongducheon, north of Seoul, will also begin to move its troops and equipment from July with the aim of completing the move by the end of next year, the office added.
“By 2017, most USFK units, including USFK headquarters, will have moved,” the office said.
The two plans have been pushed for since President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush agreed upon them in 2003, but delays pushed the date back multiple times.
Korea shoulders the cost of the YRP, and the U.S. pays for the LPP.
The Combined Forces Command (CFC) will remain in Yongsan and maintain the minimum necessary personnel and infrastructure required to command and control operational forces, as it will retain its wartime leadership role until Washington and Seoul agree that conditions are conducive for a stable transition of wartime operational control (OPCON) to Korea.
Similarly, the U.S. 210th Field Artillery Brigade will remain in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, until Korea fields a comparable capability.
The decision to temporarily keep the CFC and the 210th Brigade in their current locations came when the two countries’ defense chiefs agreed in October 2014 to delay the transition of wartime OPCON until Seoul’s military capability against nuclear and missile threats from Pyongyang was secured. At the time, the ministry noted that the transition could take place in the mid-2020s.