South Korea to conduct environmental survey of ex-US military bases

South Korea\'s defence ministry will start this week a large-scale environmental survey of former United States military bases, officials said Monday, amid heightening concerns over the potential burial of toxic chemical Agent Orange inside a US army camp in the South.

According to Yonhap news agency, Seoul and Washington are jointly investigating claims by retired American soldiers that they had helped dump large amounts of the toxic chemical in 1978 inside Camp Carroll in Chilgok, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

The claims sparked a series of allegations of burying chemical materials at former US military bases in the past, prompting the ministry to form a task force to probe the new allegations.

The task force was set up to hold its first meeting on Monday to discuss how it will proceed with the survey on 85 ex-US military installations that were turned over to the South before 2003.

"The task force will start a survey of the former US military installations from tomorrow (Tuesday)," Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters.

Kim said the ministry would take "follow-up" measures if the survey finds evidence of chemical dumping by US troops.

For the survey, the ministry requested US Forces Korea (USFK) to provide its records and environmental data on the former bases, Kim said.

USFK has returned a number of military installations to the South amid an ongoing relocation of US troops and bases here.

Officials at USFK\'s public relations team weren\'t immediately available to comment.

Following allegations regarding Camp Carroll, a former US soldier raised a new claim that USFK buried "hundreds of gallons" of chemicals at Camp Mercer in Bucheon, west of Seoul, between 1963 and 1964.

About 28,500 US soldiers are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.