Great Dumping Scandal of 2000

And Whatever Else was Handy

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This was a huge event in 2000 - a year the Korea Herald said USFK would like to forget in an article on 27 Dec 2000.  But, I have found people, going back decades, saying with each new spike in anti-American activity in South Korea that it was new and "on the rise."

The Great Water Dump merged as always with everything in the hate USFK grab bag.  It reached such intensity - conveniently at the same time South Koreans were increasingly viewing Kim Jong-Il's tyrannical regime in Pyongyang as a friend - the US Embassy issued a rare travel advisory for Americans to cancel plans to come to Korea if they could - which only made the Korean media even angrier at the US and through their reporting - the Korean masses as well. 

The warning came after three reported attacks on American soldiers during a five day period and the stabbing death of a USFK doctor by a reported homeless man.  It was also around the time the Korean police warned USFK commanders of a plan by student activists to kidnap a GI as a form of protest of "American offenses" - like the "Poisoning of 10 million Korean souls in Seoul."

The event itself, that redefines the word "tiny", began on 14 July 2000 with the report by Green Korea United that an American civilian worker at the USFK HQ (Yongsan) in Seoul ordered the illegal dumping of toxins into the Han river that "provided the drinking water" for millions of Koreans in the nation's capital.

It said the fluid contained such hazardous ingredients as formaldehyde and methanol, which it claims could cause cancer and birth defects.  Denouncing it as a criminal act, the civic group called on the U.S. military, the United States, and the Seoul government to take stern disciplinary measures against those responsible for the illegal discharge. It also asked for an official apology from Thomas A. Schwartz, commander-in-chief of the USFK. 

Korea Herald 14 July 2000

All of which happened - with no positive result except more Korean rage.

Here is the Korea Times lead editorial that used for a title a quote from a leading Korean language newspaper.  It deserves some attention in detail:

"Would they dump toxic chemicals into the Potomac River?"

These toxic chemicals are widely known to cause cancer and birth defects. The Han river supplies drinking water for over 10 million citizens residing in metropolitan Seoul and its satellite cities. Are Koreans disposable people?

The news is ethically repulsive. Environmentally, the act is destruction-friendly. In psychiatric terms, it comes close to an act of quasi-murder [oh my!].  For, what matters here is the sick mind and attitude that made possible the dumping of the cancer-causing substance. Whether or not the quantity of the discarded was enough to cause cancer is not the issue here.

"Are they here to defend us? Thanks but from whom?" The answer to the question is in a sense becoming more and more ambiguous and ambivalent in the post inter-Korean summit detente.

Frankly, some Koreans are also scared of the idea of a defense by those who commanded to dump the toxic substance; who murdered many Korean hostesses, the poor souls, who had to sell sex to earn their subsistence; and, who care little about those Koreans suffering from constant bombing exercises like the one in Maehyang-ri. Why are they reluctant to fully disclose the facts about Nogun-ri massacres?  Is the SOFA really a fair arrangement?

You might notice that these are all the issues the radical anti-US groups preach in the streets of Korea, often by means of violent protests, and the issues I have covered at this site extensively - to highlight how each one is made up of gross exaggeration, frequent lies or misreporting, and simply a will to believe the worse about the US role in Korea -- now and in the past. 

The list can go on and on. Such senseless behavior by Uncle Sam makes it difficult for us to defend the cause of their presence against Pyongyang's propaganda offensives.

Now that the USFK officially admitted its dumping of toxic chemicals, there is no excuse for them to wait for making such apologies unless they think lightly of Korean lives. Koreans are not disposable people. The sooner the message is grasped the better it will be for Korean-American ties.

The apology demanded here was from "higher ups" in Washington since the apology by the USFK commander initially called for turned out to be not enough.  (Or, maybe it came too quickly and didn't give Korean society enough time to rant and rave?)  

The issue was quickly taken up in party politics fighting in the Korean government.

With respect to environmental problems surrounding the US Forces Korea, MDP lawmaker Lee Mi-kyung said that the USFK had admitted to dumping harmful chemical into the Han River. Because it is a source of drinking water for 20 million people, Lee said, the action could only be deemed criminal.  Korea Herald 15 July 2000

To know how Koreans treat Koreans when it comes to "horrible environmental crimes", see the 4 Nov 2002 Korea Herald small story about a group of restaurants and other structures illegally constructed on the Han reservoir that Seoul's tap water is taken from.

(Since I first wrote this review in 2002, the Korea Herald has stopped allowing free access to article in their archives.)

They had been fined over 16 times over the last few years.  The cause - besides not having a permit to exist - was that they were dumping raw sewage and other waste from their businesses, including a car clinic, directly into the reservoir.  

Fined.  

Directly into it.  

For years.

[update:  In 2003, the Korea Times did not cover this with a news item, but an opinion writer noted that 29 companies had been fined and eventually arrested for allowing 270 tons of a formaldehyde derivative substance used to treat lumber to run off into the Han.  The couple dozen GALLONS of similar fluid dumped by an American contractor for USFK leads to months of high passion filling the streets of Seoul, a media frenzy, and a resulting fury throughout the society at Uncle Sam Polluter -- but 270 tons generates - much of nothing.]

Meanwhile, we shall see, the 20 small gallons of formaldehyde dumped on the USFK base went through several treatment facilities before reaching the Han.  

Oh.  I forgot.  The Korea Times told us the point was not whether the quantity of liquid dumped, and whether it could actually harm a single Korean did not matter.

The Korean press, and Koreans in the street and around the office water cooler, sure complained a lot about how it could cause cancer and harm unborn babies, but again, the issue turned out, at the very same time somehow, not to be about whether it was harmful or not.

How that works might confuse non-Koreans but it works without trouble there.

The dumping scandal was another of the relatively few examples where non-American expats in Korea began to complain about the level of anti-Americanism being put on fierce display in Korean society.  It was also another perfect example of how what should have been a minor issue was blown into an international scandal and also merged with all hate-US.

Keep in mind the dumping incident came at the same time as the odd Korean reaction to national missile defense.  It also came at the same time as the Korean passions were fired by an emergency bomb drop on a USFK practice range in Maehyang-ri, which came around the same time as the successful protests in Puerto Rico Koreans watched with much interest.
 
It was also very significantly at the same time as the Korean hope for peace skyrocketed during the North-South Summit that had a profound impact on the majority perception of the North.

(See the Korea Herald on 22 July 2002 for an interesting article on another bombing mishap that happened when a Korean fighter plane accidentally shot off a rocket on take-off.  Thankfully the missile crashed with no damage, just as the bombs released by the US plane hit in the ocean within the range with no damage, though cracks in old houses far away were investigated for months.

Funny thing about the Korean missile accident - the Korean press did not go nuts nor did Korean society.
  
In fact, the Herald article was the only one I found about it, and it was an editorial written by an American who was pointing out Korea's hypocrisy.)

Green Korea must have realized it had set the hurdle too low by demanding an apology from the USFK commander and disciplinary action, because it changed the tone the next day.

"The American military is lying to the Korean public," said the statement. "It is still trying to downplay the grave incident and to get away with only expressing regret. Thomas A. Schwartz should claim legal responsibility for the incident and resign."

"We will join hands with international groups and let the whole world know of the American military's environmental crime at the upcoming summit of the Group of Eight in Japan," said the statement. "We will also receive an apology from U.S. President Bill Clinton for the inhumane incident."

Korea Herald 15 July 2000

(Image right: anti-Afghan war protest: While citizens in China and Iran (not particularly strong allies of America) held spontaneous public displays of sympathy for the 9/11 terrorist attacks at their US Embassy - in Seoul a small group of the usual anti-US activists met to protest potential military action.  See how Bin Laden was used to symbolically strike at the Arrogant Americans to boost Korean pride.)

Or, maybe the first statement came before the network of hate-USFK/US groups had time to coordinate their strategy on how to maximize the spike in hate with the fresh issue.

"We cannot contain our anger at the arrogant actions of the USFK," said the People's Action for Reform of the Unjust SOFA in a statement. "The U.S. Eighth Army chief must step down with no conditions." The statement was titled, "Let's put the American military's pretenses in a formaldehyde-filled bottle and send it to the Mississippi River."

An anonymous Environment Ministry official also said that the ministry plans to start talks with related ministries in order to make the SOFA more environmentally friendly.

Please keep in mind the earlier article about how Korea normal handles environmental "crimes" by fellow Koreans.

You should also keep in mind that nobody in Korea drinks tap water.  The don't trust Korea's water treatment standards and thus have large containers of bottled water delivered to their homes each week.  A Seoulite adult student laughed at me when I asked if people fished in the Han.  He said, "We don't want to die!"

(Image right: common anti-US street preaching display)

The coalition of more than 100 civic groups also called for environmental clauses to be speedily inserted into the SOFA agreement so that the USFK becomes responsible for causing environmental damage on Korean soil.

"It is ridiculous for the USFK to say that it will abide by environment-related regulations," the group said. "How can it keep regulations that do not exist?"  (from same article noted above)

There are a handful of foreigners who have lived in Korea for years who regularly write for the English language press.  One of them pointed out much of what I'm trying to let more Americans see.

It is futile to point out, but I will, that this case obscures the fact that for a long time while local factories were merrily polluting, the US military has had some of the most advanced environmental systems in place at its bases. It also gets lost that the regulations that were violated were US regulations.  (source date lost)

It is one thing to demand that USFK be held to the same standard as Koreans, but it is far different when you demand
to hold them up to an incredibly hypocritical, negative double-standard -- this is a theme these newsletters are meant to illustrate.

The above observer also pointed out something that recurs in cases involving USFK: that apologizes are taken as a sign of guilt and weakness and only lead to more anger.  While in the terrible submarine incident where a Japanese school-oriented fishing boat was struck and sunk, the Japanese families who lost loved ones, the Japanese government, and Japanese press reacted in a positive way to apologies from the US.  

In fact, if you research that case, you will find the Japanese family members flown to Hawaii by the US government to learn information about the recovery effort and attend funeral memorials organized by the government actually apologized to Americans (!!!), because in their grief they did not want to seem rude and ungrateful to their Hawaiian hosts.  

In Korea, offerings of remorse by USFK (and perhaps more) are always rebuffed as insincere and accomplish the opposite of the intended effect:

Which is why it was a mistake to apologize. In this culture, repentance is not met with commensurate forgiveness. Rather, confession provides the justification for punishment, which is why suspects are beaten.  (Letter to the Editor by another expat in Korea on a later issue Korea Times 11/14/2002)

Here was the Korea Times news analysis of the apology back in 25 July 2000:

USFK generals hope that the "formaldehyde nightmare" may be forgotten with the apology, although it remains to be seen whether those responsible for the dumping will be punished in accordance with the results of the ongoing   investigation.

On the same day USFK admitted the dumping and apologized, it pledged to comply with USFK and Korean environmental laws.  "The statement said the investigation discovered that 20 gallons (75.7 liters) of formaldehyde at most were disposed of through the Yongsan compound sewage system." (Korea Herald 15 July 2000)

The statement went on to say that, "At the facility, it received primary and secondary waste treatment. This product was then processed by the Seoul waste treatment system, and received final treatment at the Nanjido central metropolitan treatment plant (before touching the Han)

Following the statement, local civic groups turned out in force to express their anger with the USFK's indifference to the environment and its alleged cover-up of the case.

"It is a shock to us that the USFK intentionally failed to inform the South Korean government and people of the illegal dumping of toxic chemicals shortly after it became a serious issue within the compound," said an official at GKU.

On the 17th, some 1,500 activists staged a protest near Yongsan station with what the Herald reported as "brief scuffles" with riot police.  10 students also threw paint on the US information service building.

The actual revision of the SOFA taking place between Korea and USFK was also hot news - great time for Korean society to find an issue to help apply massive pressure on the US in those negotiations:

The government will not accept U.S. demands that Seoul give up jurisdiction over crimes by American soldiers subject to prison terms of three years or less, officials here said yesterday.

"It's no more than a U.S. demand for bilateral negotiations," said a Foreign Ministry official, who confirmed that such a call was contained in Washington's draft revision of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). "It's sheer nonsense and is not even worth considering," said the official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.  

Korea Herald 18 July 2000

In noting the apologies coming from different U.S. government sources in Korea, the Herald stated (19 July 2000): "American officials in South Korea have rarely offered an apology to the Korean public for incidents involving the U.S. troops stationed here."

(Check out the Korea Times for an article on the Korean government taking USFK to court for $10,000 charges on use of tap water at a base and other reasons why Koreans should use the SOFA to hate USFK/US)

As the dumping took on remarkable heat in Korean society, causing massive semi-violent demonstrations with up to several thousand participants from all walks of life, the US government tried to dampen the fire - without luck. 

Speaking in a special interview with KBS-TV, US Amb Stephen Bosworth said he "personally" regrets the incident and pledged to take all possible measures to prevent a similar case from occurring.

Korea Herald 24 July 2000

You should note how the Korea Herald used the reporting of the interview with Amb Bosworth to highlight the Nogun-ri story that gained such widespread support from foreign media.  I assume it was a major focus of the KBS interview as well.

The USFK commander planned to apologize to the city leaders, but talks on the apology fell through over conflicts on the extent of the damage USFK would take credit for.  This, of coarse, sent the fire ever higher.

"Though the USFK is reported to have cited differences on the extent of the apology and other procedural matters as the reasons for the cancellation, the U.S. side seemed to have no intention to offer a sincere apology to the Korean people for their criminal act," said Kim Ta-kyun, GKU official in charge of policy planning. Korea Herald 22 July 2000

The claims of "insincerity" must be on tape somewhere among these groups and the media, because it has been echoed for years.  Another constant as far back as I've been able to research (late 1980s) is rage over US "inaction" or inappropriate" reaction and each new incident is the cause of "rising" anti-American feelings. 

The truth is maintaining hate for the US-SK relationship is "a process" - with peaks and valleys but always a continual well of anger.                                      

Here is another aspect of the process:

"U.S. officials in Korea should learn a lesson from the recent apology by US Ambassador to Japan Thomas Foley to a senior Japanese official for the misbehavior of U.S. service members on Okinawa, Japan," Kim said.

The event referred to was the brutal rape of a Japanese 14 year old girl.  It is used by Korea since it happened regardless of the level of the crime.

The photo to the left is a festival for hate promotion including traditional musical performances.  Nice stage and effort to put it together.  The civic groups have had decades to practice.

Also remember that the large protests at USFK bombing ranges also took place with conscious knowledge of the success activists in Puerto Rico were having in gaining support from US politicians.

An article in September showed the common interpretation of events in Korea.  It is usually the civics groups, with the same leaders who show up at virtually ever protest, who control what the Korean public learns.  They are the ones who are given credibility by the media. They are the ones accepted by the Korean public even if you point out misinformation by giving them facts from other sources.

For example, many very nice, intelligent, Korean adult students over the years refused to believe the woman saved by the "good citizen" Korean man on the subway in 1995 - when she was being "sexually harassed" by the evil US soldier - was actually the wife of the soldier and both of them claimed the Korean man slapped her and spit in her face when she told him she was married to the "white devil."  Many perfectly fine adult students also couldn't accept, despite articles showing the contrary and even Korean government official statistics, that US have been tried in Korean criminal courts and a dozen or so US soldiers are sitting in Korean prisons.

They simply don't want to know.  It is a mind block process.  And I guess it manifests itself in the media through reporters who have access to facts and information from the US Embassy and USFK, but fail to put them in their articles.

Here is an example of the kind of fact and reasoning that wins in Korea:

"The American military has repeatedly said that the chemical poses no health problems if diluted with water," said Kim Ta-kyun, a GKU official.

"However, this is not stated anywhere in the document."

Stating that prolonged exposure to formaldehyde is hazardous to human health and life, the document, titled "Material Safety Data Sheet," noted that the chemical can cause cancer and that people may die or lose their eyesight if they ingest it.

(Someone told me we have a certain amount of Formaldehyde in our bodies, but regardless, according to how the Koreans reacted, you would think it is the same as cyanide and was poured directly into their coffee.

In fact, references in the Korean media most often left out the Han river and simply referred to "poison" being dumped into Seoul's "tap water" - and God forbid someone should bring up the fact of how many times the liquid from the drain was treated in the base sewage system and then again a couple of times by the Korean system before it reached the Han - and was then treated I don't know how many times more before it reached a Korean tap - and Koreans already fear for their lives from the pollution in their tap water - no - 10 million Korean lives were at stake because of the USFK environmental crime!)

GKU claimed that USFK faxed the document to a superior office Nov. 23 last year, well before the Feb. 9 dumping incident.

This is a clear example of the hopeless position USFK is in.

The report before the dumping is used as "proof" of USFK cover-up because they said, in response to the dumping, that the diluted chemical was not a threat - But, since the original report predated the dumping, and did not foresee it, focused on the concentrated form of the chemical as a threat, it shows that the diluted chemical was a threat in the diluted case???

It doesn't even make sense when I try to analyze it. 

But, the press in Korea actually made the rage in Korea increase dramatically whenever USFK stated that the diluted, treated waste water posed no health risk.  (See the Korea Herald 9/9/2000)

It was a sign of "American arrogance" and lies.

The Seoul prosecutor eventually stepped in and began investigating the dumping case as public outrage was very high.  It was forced to take the case up because of the complaint filed by civics groups.  A couple of weeks later, the Korea Herald (25 Aug 2000) reported that the Korean investigation was being blocked and civics groups blamed the Korean government.

At one point, the prosecutor recommended a fine, which as we have seen is exactly what Koreans do to Korean people who dump waste directly into the Han reservoir, but the Korean court threw the fine out and ordered a trial - holding USFK up to a much higher standard than it does not only big corporations but also average Korean citizens whose illegal dumping was worse than the 2000 dumping incident.


Let's look at the reasoning the judge gave for forcing the USFK civilian worker to face a criminal trial:

"It is wrong that a case which evoked such a high degree of public concern is referred to summary court instead of regular court," said Oh Jae-sung, a judge at Seoul District Court.  Korea Times 

Great.  He is saying, 'Normally we would send you here and fine you, but since the people are so pissed off at the white devil (Korean's call their sports teams the Red Devils), you have to pay a higher price and maybe go to prison.'

In October, the news was focused more on the meetings being held between Seoul and Washington to revise the SOFA.  Reports of protests and the unfairness of the agreement gave the water dumping case equal treatment with all other outstanding issues.

There was little reporting on the dumping case itself thru the early period of 2001 after the long planned SOFA discussions were wrapped up - but even in 2002 - small articles appeared showing how the Korean judicial system continues to ask for a criminal trial of the USFK employee who ordered the dumping.

           

Korean government leaders also kept the pressure up by increasing the public's awareness of the harm done to them by USFK:

An opposition lawmaker yesterday published a white paper on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), citing numerous cases showing the unfair rights the controversial pact has given the United States Forces Korea for the past couple of decades.

"SOFA is a document demonstrating the arrogance of a super power and comprises inequality, prejudice and discrimination, when compared with the similar agreements the United States inked with Japan and Germany," said Rep. Kim Won-ung of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) in a preface.  

The USFK has also used free of charge almost 9 billion won ($7.8 million) worth of real estate, and received discounts of 3.08 trillion won ($268 million) worth of electricity for the last 20 years. 

Korea Herald 8 Nov 2000

You might be surprised to know that even most pro-American Koreans believe the US makes a huge profit off stationing troops in Korea.  They often refer to their defense budget (which actually barely meets the world average for national defense spending despite the fact that it is the last Cold War frontier). In reality, in 2002 the US estimated USFK brings in $3 billion dollars a year to Korea.  Korean anti-Americanism also complains USFK took land for bases "without permission".  It doesn't seem to phase them much that most of the bases were set up during the Korean War!  I guess the souls of thousands of dead US soldiers wasn't payment enough!!!

It is interesting to note that the Japanese and German SOFAs have no environmental clauses and
the Japanese pay a vastly greater percentage of the costs of stationing US troops there, but I have not seen this reported in the Korean press.

Anyway - as noted above, the widespread popular expression of rage for months in 2000 over the minor illegal water dumping --- caught up with the North-South Korea Summit and up coming SOFA revisions --- lost momentum out of sheer exhaustion.

The cycle turned to the lull - until other events (many covered in this newsletter) allowed Korea to exercise its demons again....

[update - The great dumping went on for a few more years - mostly under the radar - but how it evolved is instructive for how anti-US thought is cultivated in The Process year after year.

After the major waves of anti-US activity that made up the whole of 2000 - with the Great Water Dump being the best at pulling in active attention by the whole of the society - for the next 4 or 5 years, a few stories would run each year about how the prosecutor was still trying to have the US civilian arrested and brought to trial, but USFK wouldn't give him up.  They eventually held a trial without him. 

In the end, without the people screaming in the streets, a fine was quietly ordered by the judge.

More importantly, the power felt by Korean society at being galvanized in such a great demonstration of shared nationalism expressed in the waves of anti-US activity - over every issue under the sun - large and tiny - and their euphoria at seeing North and South Korea sit together at a peace summit -

- led to two key trends effecting the US position in Korea:  The Sunshine policy of seeing the North as a non-enemy and brother became the norm and a powerful force in Korean society -

- and The Environment became perhaps the best long running tool for the anti-US groups and media in reminding the whole of Korean society how big a caner the US has been to it.]