A former first sergeant of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Army confided that the U.S. military sprayed the toxic defoliant Agent Orange over the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the mid-1950s, Yonhap news agency reported on May 30.

The information is revealed amid an ongoing investigation into allegations of chemical dumping by the US military over three decades ago in the RoK.

The retired 77-year-old Eum Do-nam said that Agent Orange was sprinkled over the DMZ from aircraft by the US military three to four times in a month in 1955. The veteran, who served his duty near the DMZ around that time, said the spraying of the toxic chemical was carried out only by the US military, without participation of the RoK troops.

Eum has suffered crooked fingers and paralysis of his left leg since 20 years ago and was acknowledged as a victim of Agent Orange exposure in 2007.

The same day, the RoK and the US collected additional groundwater samples near a US military base.

The groundwater samples, along with soil samples to be collected from 15 sites around Camp Carroll in Chilgok, some 216 kilometers southeast of Seoul, will be analyzed to see if they contain harmful chemicals such as dioxin.

The RoK Defence Ministry on May 30 formed a task force for an environmental probe into former US military bases in the country.

Reports that the US forces secretly dumped the toxic Agent Orange in the RoK over 30 years ago raised concerns among the public both in the RoK and the US . This noxious chemical was used during the US war in Vietnam between 1961-1971, which has left soldiers and people from many generations with cancers and other dangerous diseases./.