SEOUL, May 25 (Reuters) - South Korea opened a second investigation in days into a report the U.S. military dumped toxic chemicals in the country decades ago, a Defence Ministry official said on Wednesday.
Experts have been sent to a former U.S. base in Bucheon, west of Seoul, to check out the claims after South Korean media reported that a U.S. veteran had said "hundreds of gallons" of chemicals were buried there between 1963 and 1964.
His comments were made in the Korean War Project a decade ago although they had only been picked up by South Korean media recently.
The base was returned to South Korea in 1993 and is used by South Korean engineering troops.
The ministry official, who declined to be identified, said the Environment Ministry was also involved in the latest investigation.
United States Forces Korea (USFK) could not provide immediate comment.
The latest allegations come after three ex-servicemen revealed last week that they had buried the toxic chemical defoliant Agent Orange at Camp Carroll in Chilgok, about 300 km (200 miles) southeast of the capital, in 1978.
The accusations could rekindle anti-American sentiment in the country, which saw big protests against the import of U.S. beef in 2008 and over the deaths of two South Korean girls hit by a U.S. military vehicle in 2002.
The United States has nearly 30,000 troops in South Korea, and the two countries are grappling with how to deal with North Korea's nuclear programme.
At the weekend, the South Korean and USFK launched a joint investigation into the report that Agent Orange had been dumped.
USFK confirmed a large amount of chemicals were buried at the site but said they had been removed more than 30 years ago. It did not specify what chemicals, and said an investigation was going on.
Agent Orange was used to clear vegetation during the Vietnam War and was also used years later around demilitarised zones on the peninsula which was divided after the 1950-1953 Korean War. (Reporting by Taeyi Kim and Jeremy Laurence; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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