(2012 article) "Bombing ends, but village still not free from past"

Some quotes from the article:

between 1954 and 2005, two small islets off the coast of Maehyangri Village were used as a bombing range for the U.S. Air Force. [...] . "You can't imagine the sound of the bombs," said Lee, 82, who has lived her whole life in Maehyangri, a farming and fishing village in Gyeonggi Province near the Yellow Sea southwest of Seoul. "I used to put my children to bed, then come outside and try to finish my chores. Every time a bomb fell the kids would wake up and I'd have to go back inside to comfort them. Every day we struggled like that."

The firing range was not public knowledge until 1988, the year of Korea's democratization. Before that, media coverage on the range was forbidden. [...] While the sound of explosives no longer dominates Maehyangri, the community of around 1,000 residents is still trying to recover from what they described as life similar to that in a war zone.

Before the 2005 closure, residents fought for years to have the range shut down. The resistance movement gained momentum every time an errant bomb killed or injured a Maehyangri resident. Throughout Kooni's time in use, 10 people were killed and more were seriously injured in bombing accidents. In 1967, a pregnant woman lost her life after being hit by a bomb while digging for oysters. The following year, a group of five children was hit with a bomb while playing on the beach. Four of them died from their injuries.

"The bombing created a tense atmosphere. The village has an exceptionally high rate of suicide and there have been lots of fights among the residents"

The U.S. Air Force made no known effort to clean up the countless bombs that were left after decades of practice drills. Used shells would disintegrate and bleed chemicals into the ground and water. In a study of soil in the area, the South Korean defense ministry found lead, cadmium and copper that exceeded permissible levels. The residents collected more than 30,000 rusted pieces of ordnance that are today piled in the village.

The damage to the local ecology is especially problematic for those in Maehyangri who rely on fishing for their livelihood. No one is sure whether it is safe to eat seafood caught in the local waters, so fishermen cast their nets far from their homeport. It is hard for them to sell their products, as some buyers are repelled by fears of contamination when they hear the name Maehyangri, a name inspired by the scent of flowers that blossomed on the plum trees that were once found throughout the area, but are now almost all gone.