An opposition lawmaker has claimed that the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) has some 50,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition.

Rep. Kim Won-wung of the Grand National Party (GNP) said that in 1982 the USFK had begun bringing depleted uranium shells for 105mm and 120mm anti-tank artillery pieces into the country, and that this has been confirmed by the USFK.

But he refused to elaborate on the source of his information about the depleted uranium ammunition.

In 1997 when civic groups raised suspicions of the U.S. troops in the country holding depleted uranium ammunition, the USFK said it has no such shells nor has it used them.

But when an accidental firing of depleted uranium shells occurred in the U.S. Forces in Japan in the same year, the U.S. government announced that it would move all the depleted uranium ammunition in Japan to South Korea in a bid to solve a diplomatic row with Japan over the accidental firing, Kim claimed.

Used in the Gulf War in 1991 and again in the NATO air raid on Yugoslavia in 1999, the depleted uranium ammunition causes breast cancer, leukemia and other diseases, and for this reason, the United Nations imposed an official ban the use of this ammunition, he said.

He called for another revision of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), for the recently revised SOFA provision against South Korea's say regarding U.S. military facilities and ammunition in the country which runs counter to the current Atomic Power Law provision banning imports of uranium and other dangerous substances

2001.02.19