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activists have begun ongoing protests in Korea after the U.S Eighth
Army’s acknowledgement that it dumped deadly chemicals at Camp
Carroll, near the U.S. embassy in Seoul in 1978.
The admission,
which comes after decades of denial, was prompted by U.S. veterans who
broke their silence to reveal that hundreds of 55-pound barrels of
Agent Orange were buried at the base. The government had claimed the
defoliant, which was used to devastating effect in the U.S. war on
Vietnam, had been dumped at sea. Agent Orange contains dioxin and
causes birth defects, cancers and other illnesses.
U.S.
General John D. Johnson claimed to have discovered a 1992 report by
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirming the soldiers’
allegations about the dumping. The U.S. and Korean governments have
agreed to limit the investigation to Camp Carroll in spite of the
fact that they had used Agent Orange near the demilitarized zone,
raising concerns that dumping may have occurred at other U.S. bases.
