SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- In its first move to consolidate its bases in South Korea, the US military closed an installation in Seoul Tuesday and returned its granted land to South Korean authorities.

    The return of the Arirang Taxi Compound in Seoul, a taxi service annex for US personnel and their family members, is the first consolidation of American installations under a 2002 land partnership plan (LPP), Yoon Jong-shik, a spokesman for the ministry's task force on the relocation of the US command, was quoted by South Korean Yonhap News Agency as saying.

    Under the land swap accord, the US military is to close 28 of its 41 major military camps scattered in South Korea and return more than half of granted land of some 136 million square meters to the South Korean government by 2011.

    In return, South Korea is to provide 5 million square meters of land for the relocation of US troops and facilities.

    "The Defense Ministry got back 10,867 square meters of land in Itaewon-dong, central Seoul, which has been provided to US forces in Korea and used as Arirang Taxi Compound since 1962," Yoon said

    Yoon then added the Seoul city government will purchase the taxi annex property to use it for public service and local development projects.

    The US military also plans to return a facility being used by an ammunition unit in Osan, just south of Seoul, early next year, as a second LPP-related consolidation, he said.

    About 37,000 American troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. The high-profile US military presence, especially in Seoul, has been a constant source of anti-American sentiments among South Koreans.

    The LPP is aimed at efficiently using land in South Korea, improving the stationing conditions for American troops and bolstering the South Korea-US combined deterrence against foreign attack, Yoon said.

    In a separate program, the US military is pushing to relocate all of its troops in Seoul and near the border with Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the south of the South Korean capital by 2006. Enditem

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U.S. military to return first piece of land to South Korea

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

SEOUL, South Korea (AP): The U.S. military was returning its first piece of land Tuesday to South Korean government as part of a plan to consolidate bases and support facilities in the host country, a military official said.

The 10,000-square-meter (12,000-square-yard) lot in the South Korean capital of Seoul has been used by a taxi company that services U.S. troops.

It was to be handed over Tuesday afternoon, marking the first step in U.S. military allignments on the divided Korean peninsula, said a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman who identified himself only as Lt. Col. Lee.

"It will be the first returning of land,'' Lee said.

Lee Ferguson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military in South Korea, could not confirm the news.

But the U.S. military said in a news release Tuesday that an environmental survey and clean-up of oil spills at the lot had been completed in preparation for its return to South Korea.

Last year, the U.S. military agreed to close half of its bases in South Korea -- 28 combat and support facilities and three training ranges -- and return more than half the land occupied by U.S. forces by 2011.

The plan includes moving U.S. troops further south from the tense border with communist North Korea.

The United States keeps 37,000 troops in South Korea -- a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in an uneasy armistice, not a peace treaty.