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Residents in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province are up in arms over a planned bombing range for the U.S. Forces Korea on Jikdo off their coast after the Defense Ministry on Wednesday confirmed it will set up the range the USFK badly needs there. The ministry announced it will install a so-called weapons impact scoring set on the island in September.
The ministry¡¯s deputy chief of international cooperation, Brig. Gen. Choe Jong-il, said the necessary applications and a request for cooperation were submitted to the city of Gunsan on the day. If the city turns down the request, the Defense Ministry warned it will turn ownership of the site over to the Korea Forest Service, which would allow the system to be installed without agreement from the local government.
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A bird¡¯s eye view of Jik Island, the site for a planned U.S. Forces Korea bombing range.
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The U.S. has been getting increasingly restive over the absence of a bombing range after a controversial facility in Maehyang-ri was shut down. U.S. pilots have left the peninsula for training in Thailand and Okinawa due to lack of adequate training facilities here. "The periodic removal of practice munitions, the removal of unexploded underwater ordnance and other environmental cleanup operations will be carried out in promptly, and the cost for the removal of disused fishing equipment and manmade fishing zones will be considered and provided for,¡± Choe promised. However, there will be no financial compensation to residents for installation of a noisy firing range.
But Gunsan civic groups are preparing for battle. Lee Man-soo, the head of one such organization, warned of ¡°another Buan¡± if the government, ¡°under the pretext of security, ignores the wishes of the people and unilaterally pushes ahead with this plan.¡± In 2003, residents of Buan, North Jeolla Province violently protested against the construction of a nuclear waste dump.
Gunsan City says as long as the government refuses to come up with some kind of compensation for the region, it will find it ¡°difficult¡± to cooperate. "We will prepare a statement of our demands by the end of the month through discussion forums and public opinion surveys and enter into negotiations with the government,¡± a city official said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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