USFK Command Poised to Move to New Headquarters

The U.S. Forces Korea Command and the UN Command headquarters relocate to their new multibillion-dollar headquarters in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province next week.

USFK headquarters finally moves out of the old garrison in Yongsan, Seoul it has occupied for 73 years. The two commands formally open their new offices at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek on June 29.

The entire relocation of the USFK to Pyeongtaek will be finished by year's end, a USFK officer said.

The leaders of South Korea and the U.S. agreed to relocate the USFK base from Yongsan in May 2003 in what was then thought a daring bid to move them further away from the frontline with North Korea.

Relocation began in April 2017 after the two countries spent billions of dollars building the new site.

The Eighth U.S. Army headquarters moved in August last year. The Combined Forced Command will remain in Yongsan for the time being but move to a seven-story building in the South Korean Defense Ministry compound later this year.

The old garrison is to be replaced with a park. The ministry is also considering returning the 87,000 sq.m site of the Defense Media Agency and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, which also sit in the old garrison, to the government to clear the entire site.

The Dragon Hill Hotel, which serves U.S. officers and occupies another 84,000 sq.m lot, will also probably be relocated or closed, increasing the size of the park to 2.6 million sq.m.