Environmental Contamination at U.S. Military Bases in South Korea and the Responsibility to Clean Up

摘要

U.S. Forces Korea recently began returning military sites to South Korea and, so far, has returned around one-half of the sites designated to revert back to the country. South Korea desperately needs this land, as urban development in the country progresses. However, the returned sites suffer from contamination to both soil and groundwater at well above threshold levels determined by the Soil Environment Preservation Act and the Groundwater Act of South Korea. Though U.S. Department of Defense policy has been to remedy contamination rising to the level of "known imminent and substantial endangerment," so far, the United States and South Korea have not been able to agree on who bears responsibility for cleanup.