Busan is good

Camp Hialeah to Close Down by August 2006

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Camp Hialeah, the U.S military base in the southeastern port city of Busan, is to close down by August 2006 under its relocation plan, the city government said Wednesday.

The current military base takes up roughly 160,000 pyong (528,000 square meters) in total, 91.3 percent of which is marked as the property of the Ministry of National Defense.

The area occupied by the present U.S camp was once used as a racecourse and training ground by the Japanese authorities during its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

After liberalization from Japan, the area was cultivated by local farmers, only to be turned over to the U.S military in September 1950 when the Korean War started.

Since then, it has served as the U.S military base in the nation’s largest port city.

In 1997, the local council in Busanjin-gu demanded the relocation of the camp, asking the camp area in central Busan be returned to the city.

This is an aerial view of U.S military base Camp Hialeah in Busan. The camp is to close down by August 2006 under a relocation project agreed on by the Korean and U.S. sides.
/Yonhap

 

This pushed the defense ministry to announce the new Land Partnership Plan (LPP) with the U.S., under which Camp Hialeah would be relocated by 2011 at the latest.

And last year, the U.S.-ROK Future Alliance Policy Initiatives (FOTA) decided to speed up the relocation.

This has encouraged the city to build a park on the site.

At present, the municipal authority is actively campaigning to turn the area into the property of the city without paying takeover fees to the central government.

``Last month, the city signed a contract with builders, and we are currently working on the draft plan,’’ said Jang Seung-bok, a city official.

The source of news : The Korea Times  06-01-2005 20:05