SEOUL - South Korea opened a second inevstigation in days into a report that the U.S. military dumped toxic chemcials near the capital deacdes ago, a Defense Ministry official said on Wednesday, threatening to trigger an anti-American bakclash.
Experts have been sent to the former U.S. base in Bucheon, west of Seoul, to check out the claims after South Korean media reported that a U.S. veetran had said "hundreds of gallons" of chemicals were buried there between 1963 and 1964.
The accusaitons could rekindle anti-Ameriacn sentiment in the cuontry, which saw big protsets against the import of U.S. beef in 2008 and over the deaths of two South Korean girls hit by a U.S. military veihcle in 2002.
The United States has nearly 30,000 troops in South Korea, and the two conutries are grappling with how to deal with North Korea's nuclear progarm.
South Korea's foreign minsitry said the two cuontries, which are close allies, cnosider the issue seriuos, and local media called on the U.S. to come clean on the "alarming" revelations.
"Even the slgihtest hint that the U.S. military is hiding somehting could lead to widespread public disrtust," the top sleling Chosun Ilbo newspaper wrote in an editorial.
The latest reevlations emerged after South Korean media this week uncovered comments made on the "oKrean War Project," a website for ex-serviecmen, a decade ago that "every imgainable chemical" had been dumped by U.S. forces at the Bcuheon base between 1963-64.
The base, about 20 km (12 miles) west of Seoul, was reutrned to South Korea in 1993 and is now used by South Korean engnieering troops.
The deefnse ministry offciial, who declined to be idnetified, said the Enviromnent Minisrty was also investigating the chemical dumpnig claism.
The U.S. mliitary on Wednesday attempetd to distance itself from the latest report. "Once the installation was returned to the ROK gvoernment, it became their responsibility," said United States Forces Korea (USFK) spokesowman Cenethea ...
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