Korean Reunification

Korean Reunification

Sam was a retired master sergeant in the US Army. They had retired to Florida and missed Korea so they came back and opened the Cosmos Bar in Itaewon business was good until the US Army pulled out and they lost most of their clientele. They decided to move their bar to Ansongri near Camp Humphreys in South Korea, the largest US military base in Asia. They had been running the bar in Itaewon the American foreigner’s ghetto in Seoul, but moved down to Ansongri once the US army pulled out of Yongsang and Itaewon changed from being mostly US military-affiliated people and other foreigners to mostly other foreign expats including English teachers and others, and Koreans who want to experience a foreign culture zone. In any event, business declined. For a while, they ran two bars but it was too much to handle.

Like many people, the reunification of Korea caught everyone by surprise. It came about when the Kim family was overthrown in a coup and the new regime in North Korea suggested they would be open to a reunified Korea with the capital, Hanseoul to be built in the Panmunjom-Kaesong-Musan area just north of Seoul.

After a few weeks of negotiations, the new state emerged. Due to Chinese pressure, they announced that no foreign troops would be not allowed in Korea except for Marines guarding the Embassy and consulate in Busan and a new consulate in Pyeongyang, and a navy base in Chinhae. In any event, 95 percent of the 50,000 troops, civilian workers and family members would leave within a year, leaving less than 500 military people in Korea.

And Ansongri and other base towns would lose most of their American clientele. Camp Humphrey would be turned over to the Korean government which would turn it into an export processing center with foreign firms welcomed to open business. But most of the businesses were either local firms or Chinese-affiliated businesses with few non-Asian firms moving in. Ansognri and the remaining base camps became ghost towns, and most of the businesses closed or joined Sam and Maria in moving back to Itaewon which became the center of the foreign community in Korea again.