CHILGOK, South Korea, July 8 (UPI) -- A team of investigators says it has detected the presence of metallic drums buried under a South Korean military base that could contain Agent Orange.
The joint South Korean-U.S. investigation said it detected unidentified metal objects buried beneath a helipad at Camp Carroll in Chilgok, some 180 miles southeast of Seoul.
The location of the drums matches claims made in May by some retired American soldiers who said they buried 250 55-gallon drums of Agent Orange at the site in 1978. Agent Orange is a defoliant used in Vietnam and it has been linked to birth defects and cancer.
Officials are drilling into the site to extract samples for testing. The results are expected in August. Investigators used ground-penetrating radar and other technologies to search the area in which the drums were said to be buried.
Investigators are also scheduled to release the results of water samples collected from various parts of the military camp later this month.
The U.S. military admitted to burying the chemical but said it was removed from the country in the late 1970s.
Some 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a vestige of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice.
