Construction of allies' new command center complete in US base in Pyeongtaek

The construction of a new command center for the combined forces of South Korea and the United States has been completed in a major American military base south of Seoul, a US Army website showed Tuesday.

South Korean and US officials commemorated the completion of Command Center Humphreys in Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Thursday last week, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

The new center is designed to support the operations of the allies' Combined Forces Command (CFC) and the US Forces Korea. Its construction was a key part of the allies' plan to relocate the US garrison in Seoul's central district of Yongsan to Camp Humphreys, according to the USACE.

"This project was a nine-year construction effort, and we finally get to see the successful completion of it," Robert Zhang, a US official involved in the project, was quoted by the USACE as saying.

The new facility is seen as the replacement of Command Center Seoul in the Yongsan garrison, known as the allies' key underground bunker for crisis management operations based on feeds from their core intelligence assets.

Its construction had proceeded in tune with the two countries' plan to relocate the CFC headquarters in Yongsan to Pyeongtaek by this year. (Yonhap)