The recent summits between North and South Korea, and between the United States and North Korea, have shifted the conversation from “total destruction” to peace.
In June, I visited Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek and United States Army Garrison Yongsan in Seoul to document the impact of the evolving military presence on Koreans and Americans. When it is fully populated, sometime in the next few years (there is no official deadline), it will host more than 18,000 soldiers and an additional 27,000 civilian employees, contractors, retirees and family members. It is now the largest American military base overseas. Camp Humphreys has since been modernized and expanded to more than 3,500 acres, at a cost of nearly $11 billion, 90 percent paid for by South Korea. Fourteen years ago, the Americans and South Koreans agreed to close and relocate three major bases to the once-sleepy outpost of Camp Humphreys: two near the North Korean border and the third at Yongsan in Seoul, the longtime headquarters of United States Forces Korea and its largest component unit, the Eighth Army. Today, that number is closer to 90, due to a massive consolidation. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the United States has operated upward of 175 military installations in South Korea, a country the size of Kentucky. Just two weeks earlier, President Donald Trump suggested in Singapore that American troops should be drawn down, if not removed altogether, from the Korean Peninsula, but Brooks made no mention in his remarks of any planned reduction, instead proclaiming that United States Forces Korea “will remain the living proof of the American commitment to the alliance.” In his own congratulatory message, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea said the partnership between his country and the United States has been “the foundation for peace and stability and paved the way for South Korea’s democratization and economic growth.”
He christened a glittering new headquarters at United States Army Garrison Humphreys, usually referred to as Camp Humphreys, an American military base in the city of Pyeongtaek. Vincent Brooks, commander of United States Forces Korea, addressed a large uniformed crowd at an outdoor ceremony 40 miles south of Seoul.
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