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South Korea will not be able to complete the relocation of US bases in the country by 2008 as scheduled due to protests by residents and construction delays, officials said.
A US base at Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul, is scheduled to triple in size by 2008 and become the US military's chief installation in South Korea.
The huge Yongsan base in central Seoul is scheduled to close.
But the defense ministry admitted the relocation would be delayed.
“It is impossible to complete our work in Pyeongtaek as scheduled for various reasons such as a delayed study on the environmental impact and protests,” a spokesman told AFP.
“A new schedule has not been fixed,” he said, declining to confirm a report by Yonhap news agency that the relocation could be postponed until 2013.
A US military spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
The US forces want to consolidate 35 US bases scattered across the nation into two hub bases by 2008 — one at Pyeongtaek and the other at Daegu, 300 kilometers southeast of the capital.
The relocation plan has been met with strong protests from activists and villagers who have to be evacuated from their homes or farmland.
In May thousands of protesters clashed with riot police in Pyeongtaek after South Korean soldiers set up a wire fence around the site, leaving 210 people injured.
South Korea hosts some 29,500 US troops under a mutual defense treaty signed following the 1950-1953 Korean War.
The relocation is part of a global US troop realignment. Washington plans to reduce its forces in South Korea to 25,000 by 2008.
