So. Koreans unite against newly exposed U.S. military crime

This May, three U.S. soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War — Steven House, Robert Travis and Richard Cramer — publicly admitted that in 1978 they participated in dumping hundreds of barrels of toxic chemicals, including Agent Orange, at Camp Carroll, a U.S. military base in south Korea.

Monica Moorehead, right, at anti-Camp Market march in Incheon, Aug. 14 . WW photo

One of these soldiers has apologized to the Korean people, but the failure of the U.S. government or its military commanders to do so has touched off widespread anger and demonstrations in the southern part of the Korean peninsula, which has been occupied by the U.S. military since 1945.

On Aug. 15 of that year, the defeated Japanese rulers had to give up their claim to all of Korea, which they had held as a colony for 35 years. But eight years later, in 1953, the Korean peninsula was formally divided along the 38th parallel following a bloody, genocidal war in which the U.S. military slaughtered millions of Koreans in the north and south. To this day, the U.S. still refuses to sign a peace treaty with the north that would lead to reunification and the withdrawal of more than 30,000 U.S. troops who still occupy the south.

Kim Sun Woo, Hwang Sun in front of anti-U.S. military banners, Camp Carroll, Aug. 12. WW photo: Monica Moorehead

With a population of more than 40 million people, south Korea is ruled by President Lee Myung-bak, an outright U.S. puppet who is former president and CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction.

According to the International Monetary Fund and CIA World Factbook, south Korea last year ranked 15th amongst all countries in terms of its gross domestic product. This high ranking, however, obscures the fact that the current global capitalist economic crisis has hit south Korean workers very hard.

According to the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movements (KAPM), in 2008 the average monthly income of the bottom 20 percent equaled about $993. To pay for a daughter or son to go to college would bankrupt a family, since the tuition fee alone is $9,950. Some 2.1 million workers out of 18 million employed in workplaces with 50 workers or less don’t receive the minimum wage; 1.3 million people can’t afford water and electricity.

Camp Carroll today. WW photo: Monica Moorehead

Another U.S. military atrocity

It is within this broad social context that all sectors of Korean society have organized a growing, dynamic, broad-based campaign of students, workers, peasants and women to expose yet another crime committed by the U.S. military against the Korean people — the dumping of toxic chemicals on their soil.

The three soldiers mentioned above were among those ordered by the U.S. military in 1978 to dig a ditch the length of a city block and bury 55-gallon drums marked “Province of Vietnam, Compound Orange.” The military buried 250 drums of defoliants stored on the base, which served then as the U.S. Army Material Support Center in Korea. Later, they buried chemicals transported from other areas on as many as 20 occasions, totaling up to 600 barrels.

Over the years, all three former GIs have developed major chronic illnesses. House has since come to south Korea to apologize to the Korean people for his role.

Agent Orange, developed by Dow Chemical and Monsanto corporations, was used as a weapon of terror by the Pentagon against the Vietnamese people as they were fighting for their liberation. An estimated 10 million gallons of the deadly chemicals were sprayed throughout the forests and rice fields. Those effects are still being felt in Vietnam today, especially with untold numbers of birth defects and damage to the ecology.

According to the website of Statistics Korea, the Chilgok area near Camp Carroll in the city of Waegwan reported an incidence of cancer between 2005 and 2009 that was 18.3 percent higher than the national average. Mortality rates for nervous system diseases in Chilgok were also above the national average.

To this day, the U.S. has refused to foot the bill for the enormous clean-up of the chemicals at Camp Carroll and other bases where chemicals were stored, such as Camp Market and Camp Page. The south Korean government has provided about $3.4 million to clean up chemicals at two other former U.S. bases, Yongsan Army Garrison and Camp Kim. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the cost of a complete removal of these chemicals and rehabilitation of the soil. Chemical tests are being conducted at 85 former U.S. army bases that were returned to south Korean “control” between 1990 and 2003. According to Korean activists, top soil has been added to Camp Carroll since 1978, making any findings inaccurate.

The south Korean progressive movement is demanding that the U.S. apologize for the chemical dumping and that it pay reparations to the Korean people for the irreparable damage. It also calls for the repeal of the Status of Forces Agreement. The U.S. is in clear violation of the agreement, which is supposed to set standard, respectful rules of conduct for a foreign military force occupying another country’s soil. The U.S. military, however, is allowed to make up its own rules in order to protect the global profit interests of the transnational corporations and banks — at the expense of the sovereignty of another country.

Justifiable outrage builds

This writer was able to participate and present solidarity messages at five demonstrations organized by the KAPM against these chemical dumpings and also against the planned establishment of a U.S. naval base on the island of Jeju. In the city of Incheon, hundreds of Koreans of all ages, led by young activists, marched on Aug. 13 around Camp Market, which is surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. Many young people wore tattoos on their arms demanding the removal of south Korean President Lee.

At one point during the march, water-filled balloons were passed out to the protesters, who then threw them at one of the camp’s gates. Cheers were heard as each balloon hit the gate.

This writer was able to interview a number of organizers against the U.S. chemical dumping, including Hwang Sun from the Joint Committee of Civil Rights, and youth activists Sin Yeh Hyun and Yoon Tae Eun.

Kim Sun Woo, executive director of the North Kyungsang Task Forces, told WW in front of Camp Carroll, “We are fighting for the truth about Agent Orange and other chemicals. To find the truth, there are two things to be done. First of all, the U.S. government should reveal the records. Second of all, the U.S. and Korea should be able to investigate equally. The current relationship between the U.S. Army and Korea is like a subordinate relationship.

“Currently, the way the investigation is done is that the U.S. government leads the investigation and the Korean government just watches it. So we need an equal relationship. Starting next Tuesday [Aug. 23], another [Republic of Korea]-U.S. joint military exercise will happen around the Korean peninsula. We think it’s a problem that with the unresolved Agent Orange issue still there, there is still a military exercise going on, which Korean people don’t want. Regarding this, we want the U.S. people to pay attention to this, and for peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula, please do educate people and do various activities.”

Monica Moorehead represented the International Action Center on Aug. 12-16 at various anti-U.S. military demonstrations in south Korea.