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Friday, June 29, 2018, 14:47
US ends 70 years of military presence in Seoul
By Associated Press
Friday, June 29, 2018, 14:47 By Associated Press

US Army soldiers fire cannons during an opening ceremony for the new headquarters of the US Forces Korea (USFK) at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek in the Republic of Korea, June 29, 2018. (PHOTO / AP)

SEOUL — The United States formally ended seven decades of military presence in the capital of the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Friday with the opening of a new headquarters farther from the tense border with Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The new US command is the largest overseas US base and is located at an optimal location that allows for the rapid movement and concentration of troops in a crisis

The US military had been headquartered in Seoul's central Yongsan neighborhood since American troops first arrived at the end of World War II. The Yongsan Garrison had been a symbol of the US-ROK alliance aimed at deterring a DPRK attack, but its occupation of prime real estate was also a long-running source of anti-American sentiment.

READ MORE: Moon: ROK-US deterrence helped steer Korean peninsula steps

The command's move to an expanded facility at Camp Humphreys, about 70 kilometers south of Seoul, comes amid a fledgling detente on the Korean Peninsula, but the relocation wasn't linked to that. It had been planned for more than a decade ago, but postponed several times because of construction and funding problems.

The new 1,420-hectare command, whose construction cost US$11 billion, is the largest overseas US base. Located on the western ROK port city of Pyeongtaek and close to a US air base, the new US command is an optimal location that allows for the rapid movement and concentration of troops in a crisis.

It also makes sense to move the US military command away from the hundreds of DPRK artillery guns targeting the Seoul metropolitan area, although Camp Humphreys is still within reach of the DPRK's newer guns, such as the 300-millimeter guns it revealed in 2015.

ALSO READ: ROK, US to continue peace measures if talks with DPRK lasts

ROK Defense Minister Song Young-moo, center left, and US Gen. Vincent Brooks, center right, commander of the United Nations Command, US Forces Korea and Combined Forces Command, cut tapes during an opening ceremony for the new headquarters of the US Forces Korea (USFK) at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, ROK, June 29, 2018. (AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP)

In a message read out by a presidential aide, ROK President Moon Jae-in said that the US forces headquarters is the "cornerstone of the US-South Korea alliance as well as the future" and that the recent diplomacy between Washington, Seoul and Pyongyang was only made possible by the allies' "strong deterrence and response posture."

ROK is also referred to as South Korea.

"In opening a new era of the US forces headquarters in Pyeongtaek, I hope that the US-South Korea alliance will develop beyond a 'military alliance' and a 'comprehensive alliance' and become a 'great alliance,'" Moon said in the statement.

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