An artist's rendition of the Gyeonggi Unification Plus Center, which is slated to open sometime this year in Uijeongbu city, South Korea. (Gyeonggi-do Provincial Government)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — South Korean President Lee Jae-myung called on the military this week to streamline the process of repurposing government real estate previously occupied by U.S. forces since the Korean War.
The directive is aimed at reusing now-abandoned property in northern Gyeonggi-do, South Korea’s most populous province, that the United States returned to the South Korean government after consolidating its forces elsewhere, presidential office spokeswoman Kang Yu-jung said Tuesday at a news conference in Seoul.
During his presidential campaign, Lee claimed that the returned lands in Gyeonggi-do were unused and neglected due to bureaucratic restrictions.
Lee, elected president this year, served as governor of Gyeonggi-do until 2021. He said during the campaign that businesses had no interest in developing the land after local governments marked up real estate prices.
“It can be deregulated, but it is not being deregulated,” he said during a speech in Paju on May 20. “As a governor of Gyeonggi-do, I had limited authority. But when I have presidential authority, I will change the regulations to reasonably solve problems and avoid unfair situations.”
South Korea’s government considers the land used by U.S. forces as borrowed real estate and refers to it in official documents using a unique phrase that translates to “provided land.”
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul, July 1, 2025. (South Korean Presidential Office)
In the early 2000s, U.S. Forces Korea — responsible for 28,500 troops on the peninsula — began moving service members from various bases in South Korea to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek city, about 40 miles south of Seoul, and U.S. Army Garrison Daegu, another 110 miles south.
The $10.7 billion project put most U.S. forces farther from the border with North Korea, returned land occupied by the U.S. military to the host country and eased the logistical and defensive concerns of having smaller outposts spread across South Korea.
Seoul paid most of the cost to move the headquarters of the major U.S. commands from Yongsan Garrison — USFK, U.N. Command, Combined Forces Command, Eighth Army and 2nd Infantry Division — to the sprawling 3,500-acre Humphreys by 2022.
The following year, approximately 74 acres of the garrison were returned to the Seoul government, which repurposed it into a baseball and soccer field.
Approximately $32 billion in government funds and private investments were made to develop the returned property in Gyeonggi-do since 2008, according to a provincial real estate prospectus published in April and reviewed by Stars and Stripes.
One of these sites is Camp LaGuardia, a small U.S. Army base established in 1951 in Uijeongbu city, about 15 miles north of Seoul. The base closed in 2005, and the property was returned to the South Korean government two years later.
Soon the Gyeonggi Unification Plus Center will open on the site, a $9.5 million three-story recreational center equipped with lounge areas for local residents, study rooms to learn about Korean history and programs to support North Korean defectors, according to the Gyeonggi province’s website. The recreational center is scheduled to open later this year.
