This is what the leftist agitators have caused from their original bogus THAAD protests; now everyone thinks these missile defense radars rain radiation over everyone located near them which is not true. This is like the new fan death myth:
A flyer is held up by an activist protesting the installation of a Green Pine land-based radar on Mt. Jang in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, during a standoff with police on Dec. 7, 2021. (Yonhap)
The Air Force launched a surprise operation on Tuesday to install an anti-missile radar on a mountain in the southeastern city of Busan, sparking angry protests from residents concerned about potential health hazards from the radar’s electromagnetic waves.
Police clashed with a group of protesters early Tuesday on Mt. Jang in the city, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, where the Air Force began installing a Green Pine land-based radar at around 6 a.m. Four people were arrested following repeated dispersion orders.
“We condemn the defense ministry for pushing ahead with the radar installation which the residents object to,” a representative of the protesting group said.
The Air Force did not notify local authorities of the operation in advance in an apparent attempt to avoid obstruction from local resident and activists, who have raised concerns over potentially harmful effects of electromagnetic waves from the radar.
You can read more at the link, but probably the most offensive thing about the anti-THAAD protesters is that it is based on lies that the electromagnetic waves from the radar are going to cause cancer and kill crops. These Green Pine protesters are falling for the same propaganda.
If the residents want to go measure electromagnetic waves they can do it right now. They can purchase their own detection device and stand at their homes or farms and see what electromagnetic waves they detect. They are not going to detect anything though because a group of Korean reporters were invited to a THAAD site and have already measured electromagnetic waves and found nothing. What is even dumber about this is that South Korea already has for years multiple Green Pine radars installed. It would be very easy to see if people are getting cancer and crops are dying in those locations.
This is simply not in my backyard protests that likely would not be happening if the leftist agitators had not protested and promoted false propaganda about the Korean THAAD site.
South Korea continues to beef up its missile defense capabilities in an effort to keep pace with the North Korean ballistic missile threat:
The headquarters of South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Agency (DAPA) in a photo provided by Yonhap News TV. (Yonhap)
South Korea said Tuesday it has decided to purchase two advanced early warning radars on incoming ballistic missiles as North Korea’s threats have grown.
The plan was approved at a regular meeting on arms procurement projects presided over by Defense Minister Han Min-koo, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Agency (DAPA).
It plans to import the radars in the project starting within this year.
The South Korean military has two Israel-made Green Pine land-based radars in operation. It is seeking to acquire radars with the maximum range of more than 800 kilometers to better detect ballistic missiles fired by the North.
Initially, the defense authorities earmarked budget for the purchase of one more radar. But they have revised a mid-term defense plan to buy two more.
South Korea is in the process of establishing the so-called Korea Air and Missile Defense system. [Yonhap]
Radars are extremely hi-tech and complicated pieces of equipment that require maintenance and some ROK politicians are using maintenance outages to criticize the ROK military:
The country’s two Green Pine antiballistic radar units, which play a key role in detecting North Korea’s ballistic missile launches, have malfunctioned 21 times in the past three years, according to a military report that was submitted to Rep. Lee Chul-gyu of the ruling Saenuri Party and exclusively acquired by the JoongAng Ilbo on Sunday.
Considering that the military operates one radar unit at a time biweekly and it takes two hours to turn on the other radar when one breaks down, 21 malfunctions means the South went 42 hours with neither radar working.
The Air Force acknowledged the malfunctions as well as the gap of 42 hours, but said there wasn’t a single time that both units were simultaneously broken.
The military said that the radars stopped working mainly when droplets of water formed inside the machine due to a temperature difference with the outside layer, which paralyzed the system’s transmission output.
According to Lee, the military has recently decided to spend an extra 13 billion won to build a dome that would cover the radars, decreasing the temperature difference to prevent future malfunctioning.
“I can’t help but doubt the military’s professionalism,” said Lee. “How could they pay 200 billion won for each radar and not have prevented dew forming?” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
