Life on base: United States nears completion of US$11 billion Camp Humphreys military base in South Korea as threat from the North intensifies
The Western nation’s military has been trying for 30 years to move its headquarters out of Seoul and out of Kim Jong-un’s artillery range
This small American city has four schools and five churches, an Arby’s, a Taco Bell and a Burger King. The grocery store is offering a deal on Budweiser beer as the temperature soars, and out front there’s a promotion for Ford Mustangs.
But for all its invocations of the American heartland, this growing town is in the middle of the South Korean countryside, in an area that was famous for growing huge grapes.
“We built an entire city from scratch,” said Colonel Scott Mueller, garrison commander of Camp Humphreys, one of the US military’s largest overseas construction projects. If it were laid across Washington, the 3,454-acre base would stretch from Key Bridge to Nationals Park, from Arlington National Cemetery to the Capitol.
“New York has been a city for 100-some years, and they’re still doing construction. But the majority of construction here will be done by 2021,” Mueller said.