ID :
184084
Tue, 05/24/2011 - 13:23
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/184084
The shortlink copeid
New allegations of chemical dumping by USFK surface amid Agent Orange probe
(ATTN: ADDS U.S. officials' meeting with American veteran; South Korean official's comment in last five paras, photo; AMENDS dateline)
WASHINGTON/PHOENIX/SEOUL, May 24 (Yonhap) -- Fresh allegations of chemical dumping by the U.S. military in South Korea surfaced Tuesday, amid an investigation into a U.S. military base in the South where American troops allegedly buried large amounts of the highly toxic defoliant Agent Orange in the 1970s.
Like the alleged burial of Agent Orange, the new allegations of chemical dumping by U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) have been raised by an American veteran, retired Master Sgt. Ray Bows, who served at another U.S. military base in South Korea in the 1960s.
In a message posted on a Web site named "Korean War Project," Bows claimed that the USFK buried "hundreds of gallons" of chemical materials at Camp Mercer in Bucheon, near the South's capital of Seoul, between 1963 and 1964.
"We dug a pit with a bulldozer -- donned rubber suits and gas masks and dump every imaginable chemical -- hundreds of gallons if not more -- into the ground on a knoll behind the second storage warehouse on the right," Bows wrote.
Bows didn't give details such as what sorts of chemical materials were buried or whether the dumping was used for disposal.
Bows said he was stationed with the 547th Engineering Corps at Camp Mercer from July 1963 to April 1964, and he was with the U.S. Army Chemical Depot Korea (USACDK).
According to Bows, the USACDK moved to Camp Carroll, a USFK logistics base at Waegwan-ri in Chilgok, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, in 1964 because the chemical depot was too close to the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.
Camp Carroll is the site where three American veterans revealed last week that they helped U.S. troops bury "250 drums" of Agent Orange in 1978, prompting South Korea and the USFK to launch a joint probe.
Agent Orange, a powerful toxic herbicide that was widely used in the Vietnam War, is suspected of causing serious health problems, including cancer and genetic damage in some people exposed to it and birth defects in their offspring. The defoliant was contaminated by dioxin, a highly toxic substance.
The U.S. military is widely known to have sprayed Agent Orange south of the Demilitarized Zone in the late 1960s to help better detect North Korean infiltrations into the South.
On Monday, the U.S. Eighth Army in South Korea said its review of military records found "trace amounts" of dioxin at Camp Carroll, a finding that could support the claims by the three U.S. veterans.
USFK military records showed "a large number of drums" containing chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and solvents were buried at Camp Carroll in 1978, but the chemicals were removed during the following two years, and findings so far have not "directly" indicated that Agent Orange was buried there, the Eighth Army said in a statement.
Meanwhile, U.S. government officials on Monday interviewed one of the three American veterans, who lives in the Arizona city of Phoenix.
The U.S. officials, including military officers, spoke with Steve House for about four hours at the office of an attorney for House. Details of the closed-door meeting were not disclosed.
After the interview, House told an Yonhap News Agency journalist, "Today is very productive because everything is going on. Everybody tries to work out together. So I hope everything works out (well). I cannot go into more details."
In Seoul on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae told reporters that South Korea and the U.S. are "serious" about the matter and the most important thing is to verify the claims.
"A joint investigation is under way, and we hope the results of the investigation will swiftly come out," Cho said.
WASHINGTON/PHOENIX/SEOUL, May 24 (Yonhap) -- Fresh allegations of chemical dumping by the U.S. military in South Korea surfaced Tuesday, amid an investigation into a U.S. military base in the South where American troops allegedly buried large amounts of the highly toxic defoliant Agent Orange in the 1970s.
Like the alleged burial of Agent Orange, the new allegations of chemical dumping by U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) have been raised by an American veteran, retired Master Sgt. Ray Bows, who served at another U.S. military base in South Korea in the 1960s.
In a message posted on a Web site named "Korean War Project," Bows claimed that the USFK buried "hundreds of gallons" of chemical materials at Camp Mercer in Bucheon, near the South's capital of Seoul, between 1963 and 1964.
"We dug a pit with a bulldozer -- donned rubber suits and gas masks and dump every imaginable chemical -- hundreds of gallons if not more -- into the ground on a knoll behind the second storage warehouse on the right," Bows wrote.
Bows didn't give details such as what sorts of chemical materials were buried or whether the dumping was used for disposal.
Bows said he was stationed with the 547th Engineering Corps at Camp Mercer from July 1963 to April 1964, and he was with the U.S. Army Chemical Depot Korea (USACDK).
According to Bows, the USACDK moved to Camp Carroll, a USFK logistics base at Waegwan-ri in Chilgok, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, in 1964 because the chemical depot was too close to the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.
Camp Carroll is the site where three American veterans revealed last week that they helped U.S. troops bury "250 drums" of Agent Orange in 1978, prompting South Korea and the USFK to launch a joint probe.
Agent Orange, a powerful toxic herbicide that was widely used in the Vietnam War, is suspected of causing serious health problems, including cancer and genetic damage in some people exposed to it and birth defects in their offspring. The defoliant was contaminated by dioxin, a highly toxic substance.
The U.S. military is widely known to have sprayed Agent Orange south of the Demilitarized Zone in the late 1960s to help better detect North Korean infiltrations into the South.
On Monday, the U.S. Eighth Army in South Korea said its review of military records found "trace amounts" of dioxin at Camp Carroll, a finding that could support the claims by the three U.S. veterans.
USFK military records showed "a large number of drums" containing chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and solvents were buried at Camp Carroll in 1978, but the chemicals were removed during the following two years, and findings so far have not "directly" indicated that Agent Orange was buried there, the Eighth Army said in a statement.
Meanwhile, U.S. government officials on Monday interviewed one of the three American veterans, who lives in the Arizona city of Phoenix.
The U.S. officials, including military officers, spoke with Steve House for about four hours at the office of an attorney for House. Details of the closed-door meeting were not disclosed.
After the interview, House told an Yonhap News Agency journalist, "Today is very productive because everything is going on. Everybody tries to work out together. So I hope everything works out (well). I cannot go into more details."
In Seoul on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae told reporters that South Korea and the U.S. are "serious" about the matter and the most important thing is to verify the claims.
"A joint investigation is under way, and we hope the results of the investigation will swiftly come out," Cho said.
