주한미군기지 환경문제의 국제법적 고찰 - 제3자에 의한 국제분쟁 해결방식을 중심으로 -

Amid the recent acceleration of the process of returning and relocating U.S. military bases in Korea, including Yongsan Garrison, the issue of responsibility for cleaning environmental pollution under R.O.K.-U.S. SOFA, which has not been able to narrow differences between Republic of Korea and the United States, has been delayed as a future task due to the return promotion through the so-called 'post-return consultation' principle that related discussions continue after the return of the base. In addition, the two sides continue to disagree over sharing the cleanup costs compensated by Korean government to the local governments in accordance with SOFA regarding environmental pollution in the areas around the U.S. military base currently being used by the U.S. Forces Korea. The above issues have only been dealt with through negotiations between the parties, and the specificity of the R.O.K.-U.S. relations, which is an alliance, is at play. However, in order to prevent the negative impact of the accumulation of such deadlocks on future R.O.K.-U.S. relations, it is necessary to move away from the methodology that has only been attempted to resolve it through negotiations between the two countries and seek third-party solutions such as judicial resolution or arbitration as an alternative under international law. In general, a resolution can be considered through the ICJ or the Permanent Court of Arbitration, but there are also procedural difficulties, such as the consent of the parties to the dispute is essential. On the other hand, R.O.K.-U.S. SOFA stipulates its own arbitration procedure for certain damages, so it may be possible to use the procedure to ease the burden of stalled negotiations between the two countries or use them as leverage to find a new breakthrough in future negotiations.