Farmland beyond the Civilian Control Line to the north of Imjin-gang River “polluted” with construction waste[Exclusive]

Construction waste dumped on farmland where the soil has been filled in Jeomwon-ri, Gunnae-myeon in Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, north of the Imjin-gang River, where civilian access is restricted. Courtesy of the Paju-si government

The north of Imjin-gang River adjacent the Military Demarcation Line that separates North and South Korea is an area where access to civilians is strictly restricted.

Since the Korean War, the area has been designated as a military protection zone, but recently it was confirmed that massive amounts of construction waste had been illegally disposed of in the fields and farmland in this area. The land in the nation’s purest “clean area” has been polluted with construction debris.

On August 1, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do announced that the city government discovered traces of illegally dumped concrete blocks from a nearby construction site in Jeomwon-ri, Gunnae-myeon buried under the name of soil filling, and that the city was conducting a survey to verify the exact scale of the damage.

A representative of the Paju-si government said, “After receiving a report, we recently inspected the area and found that waste materials from construction sites and mud from mudflats, which cannot be used as fill soil, were mixed with ordinary soil and dumped illegally.” He explained, “The surface is covered with normal soil, and the construction waste is buried deep in the ground, so it is difficult to identify the exact status and scale of the damage.”

The official said, “There are no residents living in this area and in the afternoon farmers have to move to the south of the Imjin-gang River. The perpetrators appear to have taken advantage of the fact that they couldn’t be easily detected.” He added, “Such illegal behavior in this area is highly unusual.”

The Paju-si government plans to report the owners of the land and the contractors who dumped the waste as soon as they identify the area where the waste was buried. Farmland north of the Imjin-gang River falls under the jurisdiction of four myeons--Gunnae, Jindong, Jinseo, and Jangdan--and the area spans hundreds of square meters.

The illegal dumping is believed to have occurred with the owner of the farmland, which required enough soil to elevate the land by 50cm or more, first receiving approval from the Paju-si government for development and related contractors disposing of the waste after the military unit overseeing the area granted access to the land. The only channel through which they could have entered this area were the military checkpoints at two bridges in Paju, Tongil-gyo and Jeonjin-gyo.

According to the city of Paju, approximately forty 10-ton and 25-ton truckloads of soil were carried into this area from the housing development sites in the nearby Goyang area this year alone. The Paju-si government said, “At present, it is hard to confirm how much waste was mixed with the soil and transported into this area, but we believe a large amount was illegally dumped.”

One farmer who runs a farm in this area said that large trucks constantly transported soil at the end of last year as well. A, a farmer, said, “It’s not hard to find construction debris in the farmland where the soil was dumped,” and added, “There are more than a few fields where farming will not be possible for a while because of the poor quality of soil (after the filling).”

A said, “From the position of the farmer who has to bring the land into cultivation, suspicious as it may seem, he has no choice but to accept the promise of the illegal dumpers who propose to fill your land with quality soil for a cheap price.” He further said, “In this area, soil is piling up not in fields, but even in the valley near the site of a military base that was relocated. There is no knowing what is buried along with the earth there.”