There is a new testimony that the U.S. forces sprayed defoliant in the demilitarized zone in the middle of the 1950s.

Um To Nam, who served in the south Korean puppet army, said on May 30 that "the U.S. forces sprayed defoliant in the demilitarized zone three or four times in a month by airplane in 1955 when he served in the 15th division of the army".

His testimony draws attention of public as it is different from the fact that defoliant was massively sprayed in the demilitarized zone under the command of the U.S. forces late in the 1960s.

The U.S. forces mapped out such "operation plan" as "1968 plan for the control over flora" and sprayed defoliant amounting to 80,000 liters in the area along the 155-mile Military Demarcation Line with soldiers of the south Korean puppet army involved.

According to a report worked out by the then U.S. Defense Department, defoliant sprayed in south Korea was more toxic than what the U.S. used during its Vietnam war of aggression.

Three ex-GIs who served in the Waegwan U.S. military base in Chilgok County, North Kyongsang Province of south Korea, testified to the fact on May 16 that defoliant amounting to 50 tons was buried in the base in 1978. Timed to coincide with this, other U.S. veterans who served in the U.S. forces present in south Korea and south Koreans who worked in the U.S. base also testified one after another to the fact that the U.S. forces buried toxic chemicals in secrecy in various bases including Puchon, Kyonggi Province.

The burial of toxic materials by the U.S. imperialist aggressors seriously contaminated many areas of south Korea and affected even underground water, having a serious impact on the cultivation of crops and the use of drinking water.

The areas occupied by the U.S. forces present in south Korea are known to be places with the best ecological environment from olden times.

The U.S. built military bases for aggression, training, bombing and firing in famous spots and mountains of south Korea for more than half a century in the past. While staging exercises for a war of aggression, its forces let various kinds of oil and toxic materials massive flow, seriously polluting the ecological environment and gravely threatening the life of the south Koreans.

The U.S. brought to south Korea defoliant and massively sprayed it in the area along the Military Demarcation Line, seriously polluting the natural environment in the area and destroying a large area of land and causing civilians and soldiers who participated in spraying defoliant to die of incurable diseases.

It was reported that one out of 10,000 people of south Korea suffered from cancer owing to his or her drinking of polluted underground water. One out of three families who drank underground water in the area where the U.S. oil pipeline ran met a grievous death due to various diseases including cancer.

20 persons out of 150 inhabitants of the village near the Waegwan U.S. military base died of cancer at young ages and more than 10 people are still suffering from cancer.

Tens of thousands of solders of the south Korean puppet army who had been driven for spraying defoliant by the U.S. forces are suffering from the aftereffect of defoliant.

Um To Nam, ex-soldier of the puppet army, has undergone sufferings, the end of his knuckles bent and left leg paralyzed since more than 20 years ago. He testified to the fact that "when I went to the area near Mt. Chondok I could not see any grass five decades since then."

Facts go to prove that the U.S. regards the land of south Korea as no more than a dumping ground and south Koreans as no more than colonial slaves.

Unpardonable are the U.S. criminals who have mercilessly destroyed the land of south Korea and reduced it to an area unfit for human inhabitation.