U.S. taking seriously USFK's alleged agent orange dumping: Pentagon

By Hwang Doo-hyong WASHINGTON, May 24 (Yonhap) -- The United States said Tuesday it is taking seriously the allegations that U.S. troops in South Korea buried drums of toxic materials in camps in South Korea decades ago. "We are taking these allegations very seriously and are working closely with Korean authorities," Leslie Hull-Ryde, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, told Yonhap News Agency by phone. "Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson, commanding general, 8th United States Army, is overseeing a thorough inquiry of these claims, and is coordinating closely with the ROK Ministries of Environment and Defense." ROK stands for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea. Several U.S. soldiers, who served in South Korea in the 1970 and 60s, have revealed in recent days that they dumped a significant amount of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange and other chemicals in camps in South Korea while they served in South Korea. The 8th Army said earlier in the day that it has not yet found evidence directly indicating Agent Orange was buried at Camp Carrol, in the southeastern part of the country, as alleged, adding that a large number of drums containing chemicals were buried at the camp in 1978 but removed in the following couple of years. Fresh allegations emerged Tuesday that American troops buried hundreds of gallons of chemicals at Camp Mercer in Bucheon City, west of Seoul, between 1963 and 1964. The U.S. military is suspected of having sprayed Agent Orange south of the decades-old Demilitarized Zone in the 1960s to eradicate foliage on the heavily fortified border where North Korean infiltration took place frequently. Agent Orange is a powerful toxic herbicide believed to have been widely used in the Vietnam War. Exposure to the toxic defoliant, which contains dioxin, can cause cancer, genetic damage, birth defects and other health problems.