Naval Base South Korea - U.S. soldiers stand in front of the grand opening ceremony of the new United Nations Command and U.S. Forces Korea headquarters building at Camp Humphreys in Pyongtak on June 29, 2018.

South Korean Minister of National Defense Song Young-mo and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) commander Gen. Vincent Brooks cut the ribbon after a 19-gun salute with white smoke at the parade ground at Camp Humphreys on June 29. United Nations Command and the new USFK headquarters.

Naval Base South Korea

Naval Base South Korea

The massive $10.8 billion military base in Pyongyang, America's largest overseas military base, is in the final stages of a more than decade-long development project. About 45 miles south of the former headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in metropolitan Seoul, it is expected to house about 45,000 soldiers, contractors and family members by 2022 in the largest peacetime resettlement program in Defense Department history. The camp is located in the capital of the United States, South Korea. It marks the virtual end of a 70-year military presence — something Washington and Seoul have been arguing about since 1987. This is a significant investment in the long-term presence of US forces in Korea and "direct evidence of America's commitment to the coalition," General Brooks told a largely military audience at the headquarters' inauguration.

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Now one of the world's wealthiest democracies, the alliance - formalized by the 1953 Mutual Defense Treaty - has been successfully protected from threats by three generations of the Kim family, who maintain a firm grip on their unusual and autocratic government in the North. Parallel 38. But today, despite the show of strength that Camp Humphreys represents, the United States is concerned about the future of South Korea. There is doubt about the role of the military.

General Brooks' emphasis on America's partnership with South Korea contrasts with the contradictory rhetoric of President Donald Trump, who has praised dictators, criticized international allies and questioned the value of America's long-standing military alliances. During the campaign, Trump falsely claimed that South Korea would pay "peanuts" for the presence of US troops and reportedly talked about ordering them out of the Korean Peninsula in February. Trump also surprised South Korean President Moon Jae-in by unilaterally suspending joint military exercises with Seoul, repeating Pyongyang's description of them as "provocative." Last year, he angered South Korea by falsely claiming that the peninsula was "actually part of China."

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Daniel Pinkston, an East Asia expert at South Korea's Troy University, says: "People should question the determination and validity of America's commitments to Trump." "Signaling and messaging in policies and raising questions of inconsistency."

Chinhae South Korea Hi Res Stock Photography And Images

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's pledge to "work toward complete denuclearization" at their June 12 summit is looking increasingly shaky as the détente between Seoul and Pyongyang that began at February's Winter Olympics escalates. Satellite images show constant updates at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear test site, and earlier this month, US intelligence officials told NBC News that Pyongyang has increased production of enriched uranium at secret sites, "citing clear evidence that That they are trying to deceive the United States." After US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit on July 6 and 7, North Korea accused the US of making "gangster-like" demands for denuclearization and called Washington's position "very worrying".

President Moon has said that US troops will remain in South Korea, even though Seoul and Pyongyang have signed a peace treaty (the two sides are technically still at war and signed a ceasefire at the end of the Korean conflict, but do not have official peace). But in May, one of his top advisers said he wanted to eventually reunite with the United States. Meanwhile, analysts say, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is trying to drive a wedge between the two longtime allies.

At the 310,000-square-foot shopping complex that opened last winter in the heart of Camp Humphreys, weary soldiers eat Popeye and drink from Arby's cups in a lounge where a mural reads: "Our customers are heroes." ».

Naval Base South Korea

The new barracks has housed the Army's 8th Division since last summer and currently houses about 27,000 soldiers, contractors and dependents. Pyongyang has previously threatened to turn the South Korean capital into a “sea of ​​fire,” not within range of most conventional artillery installations — however, increasing distance has not stopped the threats: “The bigger the US military base. Our military can hit its targets more effectively, North said last year.

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Camp Humphreys has guard towers, tank training areas and firing ranges, as well as a flight line where Apache and Chinook helicopters are parked. But aside from the military hardware, Anytown's base is the United States. It could be a piece of Pyeongtaek Rice Pie in the countryside. More than 650 buildings have been built or are being renovated on land the size of downtown Washington, D.C., including four schools and five churches, a hospital, the largest gym on any foreign base, a bowling alley and an 18-hole golf course.

U.S. soldiers watch a game during the U.S. College Basketball Armed Forces Classic at Camp Humphreys in Pyongtak on November 9, 2013.

Facilities like this make many South Korean men "want to become Katosas," said Park Young-min, 27, who uses the US military's acronym for Korea Augmentation. All able-bodied men in South Korea must serve nearly two years of military service, and in 2012 the United States near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). KATUSA says a completed park on base will receive special benefits for a select minority. "It's a really good opportunity to learn English, everything - the food, the facilities - is better than the Korean army," he said.

According to Pew, South Korea is one of the most favorable countries in the world, with 75% of people having a favorable opinion of the United States in 2017 (only 17% have a favorable opinion of Trump). But not everyone sees the military presence as benign. Park Jong-yeon, secretary general of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a non-governmental organization, argued that there were "many problems with the cost and size" of Camp Humphrey, with South Korea paying 92 percent of the base's $10.8 billion price tag. Is. This year, the United States is under a five-year cost-sharing agreement signed with the United States in 2014, according to Reuters. South Korea also paid about 857 million dollars to maintain the troops. Washington and Seoul are currently negotiating to share the costs from 2019. .

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Troy University's Pinkston says the current cost-sharing is actually "a good deal for both sides," adding that opponents "underestimate or fail to integrate the economics of regional and global security." But the concern about this base goes beyond economics. In 2006, the South Korean government sent helicopters and 10,000 police officers and unarmed soldiers to evict about 1,000 villagers and activists from the village now occupied by Camp Humphreys, which has expanded since Washington and Seoul agreed on relocation plans. It has tripled. Troops from Seoul in 2004.

"We used rice fields and an elementary school as our headquarters for resistance when about 20,000 [South Korean] soldiers and riot police attacked," said an activist who asked to be identified as Jok Gul. In Daicho, one of several villages destroyed for the base in May 2006. According to Joyak Gul, security forces surrounded the village with barbed wire warfare until the residents were finally evicted in 2007.

Although South Korea's Ministry of Defense has paid compensation for the farmers' land, grievances continue. Kang Mi, head of the Pyongyang Peace Center and one of 20 people who demonstrated outside the barracks on June 29, said through an interpreter, "The US military built its base on land that was stolen from civilians and farmers. And had such a spectacular opening ceremony. It's inappropriate."

Naval Base South Korea

On May 4, 2006, U.S. South Korean riot police broke up a demonstration near the Camp Humphreys military installation in Pyongyang, South Korea.

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Accusations of the South Korean government supporting the US coalition at the expense of its own citizens go back decades. In a landmark ruling last year, a South Korean court partially upheld a case brought by former sex workers against their own government. In the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, courts found that there was no legal basis for the government to forcibly incarcerate women who had served in these forces in camps called to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. US More contemporary issues - including noise, pollution, crime and sexual violence - about US military installations have strained the long-standing relationship between the garrison and the local population. In 2002 in the United States, popular protests erupted after a military court acquitted two men of negligent homicide after their vehicle ran over two teenage girls.

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