The Patriot Files Forums  

Go Back   The Patriot Files Forums > Conflict posts > Korea

Post New Thread  Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 06-30-2018, 07:51 AM
Boats's Avatar
Boats Boats is online now
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Sauk Village, IL
Posts: 21,784
Post U.S. troops leave Seoul for camp south of capital

U.S. troops leave Seoul for camp south of capital
New command post farther from North Korea’s big guns
By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG The Associated Press - June 30, 2018 at 2:29 a.m.

SEOUL, South Korea -- The United States formally ended seven decades of military presence in South Korea's capital Friday with a ceremony to mark the opening of a new headquarters farther from North Korean artillery range.

The command's move to Camp Humphreys, about 45 miles south of Seoul, comes amid a fledgling detente on the Korean Peninsula, though the relocation was planned long before that. Most troops have already transferred to the new location, and the U.S. says the remaining ones will move by the end of this year.

The U.S. military had been headquartered in Seoul's central Yongsan neighborhood since American troops first arrived at the end of World War II. The Yongsan Garrison was a symbol of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, but its occupation of prime real estate was also a long-running source of friction.

Located in the western port city of Pyeongtaek and close to a U.S. airfield, the new 3,510-acre command cost $11 billion to build and is the largest overseas U.S. base. South Korea has paid about 90 percent of the cost.

"This headquarters' building, within the headquarters' complex that surrounds it, represents the significant investment in the long-term presence of U.S. forces in Korea," Gen. Vincent Brooks, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said during the opening ceremony. "U.S. Forces Korea will remain the living proof of the American commitment to the alliance."

In a message read out at the ceremony by an aide, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the headquarters is the cornerstone of the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

"In opening a new era of the U.S. forces headquarters in Pyeongtaek, I hope that the U.S.-South Korea alliance will develop beyond a 'military alliance' and a 'comprehensive alliance' and become a 'great alliance,'" Moon said in the statement.

The relocation is part of a broad U.S. plan to realign its 28,500 troops and their bases in South Korea into two major hubs: one in Pyeongtaek and the other in the southeastern city of Daegu. U.S. officials say they want to move out of highly populated areas and improve efficiency and military readiness.

"Modern warfare is all about concentrating and deploying forces quickly, and Pyeongtaek in these terms has many advantages because it can really function as an outlet, unlike Yongsan, which was stuck in the middle of a population center," said Yun Jiwon, a security professor at Pyeongtaek University.

It also moved U.S. forces away from the hundreds of North Korean artillery guns targeting the Seoul metropolitan area, although Camp Humphreys is still within reach of newer weapons, such as the 300mm guns North Korea revealed in 2015.

The land used by the Yongsan Garrison will be handed over to South Korea, which hopes to turn the site into a Seoul's "Central Park."

The Yongsan area has been occupied by foreign forces since the late 19th century. Chinese troops used the site as their base when they came to help suppress a revolt in 1882. The Imperial Japanese Army took it over during Japan's colonization of the peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

The U.S. military arrived to disarm Japan after its World War II defeat. Most U.S. troops were withdrawn in 1949 but they returned the next year to fight alongside South Korea in the three-year Korean War. In 1957, the U.S. military command in South Korea was formally launched in Yongsan.
__________________
Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 06:30 AM.


Powered by vBulletin, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.