The U.S. military buried leftover Agent Orange, a defoliant widely used during the Vietnam War, at one of its camps in Korea in 1978, former USFK soldiers told a U.S. TV program.

The Korean government on Thursday demanded the United States verify the report by Phoenix, Arizona-based KPHO CBS 5 News. It also proposed a joint investigation into the claim.


Citing three veterans, the TV channel said Monday that U.S. Forces Korea buried the highly toxic substance at Camp Carroll in Chilgok, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Agent Orange contaminated by dioxin was used to destroy forest cover during the Vietnam War. The U.S. military also admitted that Agent Orange was used around the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

Spc. Steve House, one of the three soldiers said he was ordered to dig a ditch nearly the length of a city block.

“They just told us it was going to be used for disposal,” House was quoted as saying.

Robert Travis, another former USFK soldier, said, “There were approximately 250 drums. ... On the barrels it said ‘chemicals type Agent Orange.’ It had a stripe around the barrel dated 1967 for the Republic of Vietnam.”

Seoul’s Environment Ministry said it will ask the U.S. side to jointly investigate the claims.

The U.S. Eighth Army that has Camp Carroll under its command, said

The USFK said it is verifying the report.

“To date we have initiated a review of historical data to see if we can substantiate the allegations,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Buczkowski, a spokesman for U.S. Eighth Army. “In addition, we are assessing what other actions we need to take by consulting our environmental experts so we can deliberately address this matter.” (From news reports)