Other USFK veterans and S.Koreans attest to spraying defoliants, damaging the environment and health
An official U.S. government
document confirms that the country’s military sprayed defoliant in South
Korea for a far longer period than had previously been officially
stated.
According to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) document
obtained by the Hankyoreh on Sunday (local time), the period during
which defoliant was sprayed in South Korea was recorded internally as
being from 1962 to 1970. In an official document sent in 2009 to a former U.S. soldier suffering from after-effects of defoliant exposure to explain about compensation and other matters, the department wrote that the defoliants Agent Orange, Agent Blue, and monuron were sprayed between 1962 and 1970 over an area extending from below the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone to the area of the 1st U.S. Corps command and the First ROK Army.
The department further noted that
this was confirmed by a document sent to it by the U.S. Army Center for
Unit Records Research on July 23, 2008, and that the defoliant was
delivered by sprayers and by spraying devices mounted on trailers. At
the time, the 1st U.S. Corps was positioned in the West over the 2nd
U.S. Infantry Division, which oversaw the northern side of the Han
River, while the 1st ROK Amy had authority over the eastern front in
Gangwon. This is leading experts to surmise that defoliant was sprayed
over a wide area of the DMZ during the entire decade of the 1960s.
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