U.S. Indicted for Environmental Pollution in S. Korea
Pyongyang, February 22 (KCNA) -- The National Reunification Institute issued a white paper Monday indicting the U.S.
imperialist aggression forces for their environmental pollution during their 60 year-long occupation of south Korea in
connection with the recent disclosure of part of the environmental pollution by the U.S. forces in their military bases
that has lashed the whole Korean nation into fury. The white paper said:
There are a total of 850 U.S. military bases in the world but south Korea is the only region which has offered so vast
area to all branches of the three services of the U.S. forces densely deployed there.
There are 101 military bases of all kinds in south Korea which cover at least 73.2 million phyong.
Residential areas except for land, forestry, factories and business centers there cover a little over 100 million
phyong. But a vast area almost equal to those residential areas is occupied by at least 37,000 U.S. soldiers.
450,000 hectares of arable land are occupied by barracks of U.S. forces in south Korea and tens of millions of phyong
by the firing ranges for the exclusive use of U.S. forces.
It is possible to measure the area of the land usurped by the U.S. military bases but with nothing can the occupation
forces compensate for the land so severely destroyed and damaged by them.
The U.S. forces stationed in the U.S. military base district in Ryongsan which occupies an area of 820,000 phyong in
the central part of Seoul discharged without warning all sorts of contaminated oil and cancer-causing substance whose
pungent odor can be smelt even in the place 1 km away from it, thus polluting 491,000 phyong out of 820,000 phyong.
Camp Long in Wonju City, South Kangwon Province, U.S. airforce base in Osan City, Kyonggi Province and Camp House of
the U.S. second division in Phaju City in the same province and most of the areas occupied by the U.S. military bases
are seriously polluted.
Anti-north war exercises conducted by the U.S. forces almost every day in south Korea cause unlimited environmental
pollution.
U.S. madcap war exercises left Mt. Thaebaek range, backbone of the great Mt. Paektu range, in the state of breakdown as
2 million phyong of it have been dug out. And a big rock island in waters off Maehyang-ri, Hwasong City, Kyonggi
Province was lowered 15 meters due to mock nuke dropping exercises conducted by the U.S. forces without letup. At least
90 U.S. fighter bombers fly into a drill ground in Maehyang-ri in a day from U.S. airforce bases in Kunsan, Osan, Suwon,
Taegu and other areas for mock nuke dropping exercises.
Deafening noise by these planes caused 80 per cent of the inhabitants in Maehyang-ri to suffer from hearing disorder,
dizziness, dyspepsia, nervousness, stillbirth and all sorts of other diseases.
Inhabitants in areas around U.S. airforce base in Osan, Kyonggi Province also suffer from mental disorder, heart
trouble and hallucination due to noise.
At the recent "negotiations" held between the U.S. and the south Korean authorities over the issue of relocation of the
U.S. forces in south Korea the U.S. forces side, pretending to be generous, said that they would "return" to south Korea
by 2011 28 base districts which have so far been under their control.
They also said they were ready to return 780,000 phyong out of 820,000 of their base in Ryongsan, Seoul, by 2008.
They, however, requested south Korea to offer 3.49 million phyong in Phyongthaek and Osan areas instead, more than four
times the land occupied by their base at present.
The issue of U.S. military bases in south Korea is an issue related to more than 37,000 U.S. troops present there but
an issue related to the fate of more than 48 million south Koreans.
The nation can lead a genuine life only in the land free from outsiders, the paper said, calling on all Koreans to
force the U.S. forces to withdraw from south Korea to the last man under the banner of three forms of
cooperation--cooperation for national independence, cooperation for peace against war and cooperation for reunification
and patriotism--and hand down a reunified land to posterity.