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The Defense Ministry said Thursday that Korean and U.S. authorities had revised elements of their agreement on the disposal of outdated ammunition, which critics say is unfair for Korea.
Signing the agreement to change the War Reserved Stock for Allies system were Choi Dong-jin, chief of the ministry's acquisition office, and Charles Campbell, U.S. Forces Korea chief of staff. The revision calls for a suspension of the normal methods of disposing outdated ammunition - burning or detonating it - and the construction of high-tech facilities to recover reusable components and safely treat the rest.
According to the new agreement, the United States will no longer be able to bring in for disposal here old ammunition from U.S. forces based outside of America or Korea. Also, ammunition owned by the USFK but judged dangerous for the environment cannot be treated in the new facilities.
Also, the Korean military will be allowed to dispose of its ammunition without consulting the USFK, which it had to do in the past.
The new environmentally-friendly treatment facilities will be built by 2006 and cost W49.6 billion ($42 million), half paid by Washington, half by Seoul. They will be able to treat up to 10,000 tons of old ammunition, and will save W120 billion won over the next 15 years by eliminating management and storage costs.
(Yoo Yong-won, kysu@chosun.com )
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