Originally published on HANKYOREH
A civic group in Busan claims to have found evidence indicating that US Forces Korea (USFK) intends to implement a chemical, biological, and radiological defense system at bases around the country.
A group called the Busan Civic Action Committee to Banish the American Germ Warfare Lab from the Pier 8 US Military Base made the claims during a press conference held in front of the US Consulate in the city’s Busanjin District on May 28.
“We’ve confirmed that USFK is recruiting staff to operate CENTAUR command posts at bases around the country,” the action committee said. The USFK has explained that CENTAUR, which stands for “Capabilities to Enhance Threat Awareness, Understanding and Response,” is a defense network designed to counter chemical, biological, and radiological threats.
According to the action committee, Battelle Memorial Institute placed job ads on US websites this past March for command post operating positions in Busan, Daegu, Seoul, Dongducheon, and the Jinhae District in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. Battelle, a nonprofit research institution in the US that often works with the US military, has been commissioned to operate CENTAUR command posts on American military bases.
“Prior to this, we’d assumed that CENTAUR was only located at the US military base at Pier 8. But the Battelle job ads show that CENTAUR is being operated on an expanded level at locations around the country,” a member of the action committee said.
In 2016, USFK launched JUPITR, a strategic initiative aimed at defending against biological, chemical, and radiological weapons, at the Pier 8 base in the port of Busan. This project is still underway, though the name has been changed to CENTAUR.
During a briefing at the Pier 8 base in Dec. 2019, USFK said that CENTAUR is a fully verified equipment-based program, which it described as an early warning defense system against biological threats rather than a biological testing or research program.
The USFK went on to say that dead bacterial samples had been brought into the country with the knowledge of the South Korean authorities and used to calibrate the CENTAUR’s defensive detective capabilities. After a backlash from locals, the USFK said, it stopped bringing in such samples and destroyed the ones still in storage. The USFK maintained that it has neither brought any active biological or chemical samples into Korea nor carried out any experimental research.
However, civic groups and Busan residents accuse the US military of deploying a germ warfare unit to the pier and carrying out chemical and biological experiments there and are calling for the facility to be closed.
By Yeong-dong, staff reporter
