Dongducheon to recover small portion of US Army base in return

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung (center) and lawmakers call for the immediate return of US Army bases to South Korea at the National Assembly on Sept. 17. (provided by the Gyeonggi Provincial Office)

City governments to reform returned bases into public facilities

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung (center) and lawmakers call for the immediate return of US Army bases to South Korea at the National Assembly on Sept. 17. (provided by the Gyeonggi Provincial Office)

When the South Korean Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced on Dec. 11 that it would be immediately resuming control of four American bases ― namely, Camp Eagle and Camp Long in Wonju, Camp Market in Bupyeong, and the Shea Range at Camp Hovey in Dongducheon ― Wonju and Incheon welcomed the move, saying it would facilitate balanced regional development. In contrast, Dongducheon had to swallow its disappointment about only recovering a small parcel of the American facilities there, in the hope that this means the main base will be returned.

“Camp Market was turned into an arsenal by the Japanese colonial authorities in 1939 and was then used by the American troops after Korea’s liberation. 80 years later, it’s finally being returned to the public,” enthused Park Nam-chun, mayor of Incheon, in a press conference on Wednesday. Though the decision to return Camp Market was made in 2002, the actual handover was delayed for 17 years because of a long-running dispute over an environmental survey and follow-up action.

Agreement to return 4 US Army bases (Dec. 11)

On the same day, the city of Incheon announced its strategy for the future of Camp Market in Bupyeong, which includes setting up an “info center” that will encourage residents to join the debate about how the land should be used.

Camp Long (340,000 square meters), in Wonju, Gangwon Province, will be reborn as a public park. The city intends to build a park after cleaning up pollution in the soil, which will take about a year. Along with building an archery center and a swimming pool that meets international standards, the city will renovate the old barracks into a “book caf窈