Published: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 05:16:10 +0900

I love the wording of this compromise:

In a compromise, Korea and the United States agreed Friday to complete the handover of full wartime operational control of Korean troops to Seoul between Oct. 15, 2009 and March 15, 2012. The two sides issued a 14-point joint communiqué at the end of further negotiations after the 38th Security Consultative Meeting headed by Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung and his U.S. counterpart Donald Rumsfeld.

I'm willing to bet Rumsfeld is leaning towards Oct. 16, 2009.  That's between the two given dates, right?  This is just a face saving measure for President Roh because he would look even weaker on national security than he already is if he appeared to be trying to kick USFK out the door as soon as possible.  I just don't see the operational control issue lingering to 2012, I'm betting on 2009.

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I think it will be tied to Yongsan moving to Camp Humphreys. 2011 has been the most common rumor regarding the date of the move. However, the official date is still 2008. When I think about what must occur to completely move to the Hump - I just don't see how it can be completed by 2008. If it remains this date, I wonder why the upgrades that are currently happening and contracted for on Yongsan are still continuing.

Jim,

I have worked on camp closeouts before in 2ID and people wondered the same thing why renovations for example were going on when the camp was closing. The reason was because the contract had been signed and paid for prior to the decision to close the camp. Thus the contractors would keep the money for doing nothing if the renovations weren't done. Thus the Army had the contractors complete the renovations anyway so whoever took over the camps would have better buildings to use. Much like with the hospital on Yongsan the Koreans are going to be getting a nice new hospital once the camp hand over is completed. Call it being good neighbors.

Yes,

Once congress passes a funding bill and monies enter into a pipeline it hard to stop the flow. In the states its someones porkbarrel project. I'm not sure how it works here in Korea. I know the PPM Project Management Office at the Corps of Engineers (FED) manages/oversees the money side of most projects (AAFES has their own engineering department, and NAF projects are funded differently). There are at least three civilian Engineering firms who bid on developing the project's blueprints and plans, along with the Corps doing an internal bid, and then the actual work is subcontracted with local construction firms while FED government employees oversee the work from one of the Project Management Offices (I think there is a seperate PMO for the hospital).

Guess things get so complicated and so many jobs and salaries are involved it's darn near impossible to stop the snowball once its starts.