Tag: THAAD

You just have to love the hypocrites in the Russian and Chinese military who come out against THAAD deployment to South Korea with comments like this:

Washington was using the North’s actions as a pretext to gain military superiority over China, Chinese general Cai Jun told defence officials at a briefing on the forum’s sidelines.

Deploying the system in South Korea, he said, was “not conducive to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula”, he said, adding “it has increased the risk of military conflict in the region”. [AFP]

You know what is not conducive to “peace and stability” North Korea continuous provocations, missile firings and nuclear tests.

Beijing fears that THAAD could be used against its own missiles, effectively undermining its nuclear deterrence capabilities against the US.

From a global perspective, Cai said, the US’s insistence on developing its missile defence programme could trigger “an arms race at a high level, even to outer space.”

It is pretty ironic that the Chinese are worried about an arms race when their unilateral territorial grabs in the South China Sea and the East China Sea is causing an arms race with neighboring countries in the reasons.

Speaking on a panel during the forum, Russian deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov also slammed the agreement.

“We are concerned about the attempts of certain nations to exploit the complex situation in the Korean peninsula,” he said, “pumping this sub-region with clearly excessive defence capabilities.”

The decision has “aggravated regional tension” and “adds problems to solving the situation.”

You can read more at the link, but if the Russians are so concerned about aggravating regional tensions and adding problems then why don’t they do something to stop North Korea nuclear and missile programs that are the main cause of all the regional tensions and problems?

I will never understand how these leftists continue to think that the Kim regime will ever denuclearize?  How does he plan to do this?  By more talks and negotiations with the North Koreans:

Rep. Moon Jae-in, a former leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea and presidential aspirant, called on the government Sunday to temporarily suspend ongoing procedures to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system to the Korean Peninsula, demanding diplomatic efforts resume to denuclearize North Korea.

In his Facebook post, Moon also pointed out that the agreement between Seoul and Washington to deploy a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to the peninsula by end-2017 needs parliamentary approval.

“Rather than arguing that only the THAAD deployment serves the national interests, there should be discussions about national interests from a more comprehensive perspective,” he wrote, apparently alluding to President Park Geun-hye’s defense of the deployment plan.

But he added it would not be easy to reverse the agreement with the United States, South Korea’s top security ally, to station a THAAD battery in a golf course in the southern county of Seongju, about 290 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Moon, then, said that South Korea has already shown to the world a “strong resolve” against Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs through the deployment decision, and that a delay would not cause any big change in the allies’ efforts to install the THAAD in Seongju.

“The fundamental resolution of North Korea’s nuclear problem is through the realization of (the goal to) denuclearize the Korean Peninsula,” he said. “A freeze on the North’s nukes is urgent, and then we should go in a direction towards a complement dismantlement of the North’s nuclear arms.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

For anyone looking to get a round of golf in before the Lotte Sky Hill Golf Resort is turned into a military base the time to do it is now:

The South Korean military will launch negotiations with Lotte this week to buy a golf course in Seongju County in North Gyeongsang Province, which was announced as the final site to house Terminal High Altitude Area Defense(THAAD) interceptors.

The Ministry of National Defense said it hopes to deploy the U.S. missile shield system as swiftly as possible and is positively reviewing a plan to swap a golf course it owns in Gyeonggi Province with Lotte’s facility.

The golf course in Seongju sits on land spanning one-point-78 million square kilometers, including 820-thousand square kilometers of forest, and the ministry plans to purchase the whole property.

Lotte Skyhill Seongju Country Club, which operates the grounds, issued a statement immediately after the announcement of the new THAAD site last Friday, saying it will positively consider the government’s decision given the gravity of the current national security situation.

It was made known that Lotte will continue the operation of the golf course while it is holding negotiations with the Defense Ministry.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

Won Buddhism believers hold a rally in front of the Defense Ministry in Seoul on Sept. 30, 2016, to protest a ministry decision to pick a golf course in the southeastern county of Seongju as the “final” site for an advanced U.S. missile defense system known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). The golf course is about 500 meters away from the religion’s sacred ground. (Yonhap)

It has long been suspected that the Lotte Sky Hill Golf Course would be the final site for the deployment of the US THAAD battery and the ROK government has finally made it official:

South Korea selected a golf course in the southeastern part of the nation as the “final” site for an advanced U.S. missile defense system to better counter North Korea’s evolving missile and nuclear threat, the defense ministry said Friday.

The decision comes nearly three months after Seoul and Washington originally chose the Seongsan anti-aircraft missile base in Seongju, 296 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to host the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system by 2017.

“We have conducted a simulation-based evaluation on three alternative sites in Seongju. The test results showed the Lotte Skyhill Country Club is the most optimal site for THAAD in terms of six principles,” Moon Sang-gyun, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, told Yonhap News Agency.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This is probably not much of a surprise to people following this issue:

The militaries of South Korea and the United States are expected to announce a golf course as the new site for an advanced American antimissile system this week, a defense official here said Sunday.

According to the defense ministry official, evaluations for three candidate sites to host the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in Seongju County, located in the southeastern part of the nation, “are virtually complete.” The announcement will likely be made before the end of September after the military briefs Seongju residents on its decision.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the government still faces two problems before the THAAD site can be established.  First of all, according to the article Lotte wants $90.6 million to hand over the golf course which will require additional funds from the National Assembly.  The second issue they face is that the citizens of Gimcheon plan to launch full scale protests to stop the THAAD deployment.

It looks like the North Koreans are doing the Park administration a favor with their continued provocations:

Opposition parties are toning down their opposition to the Park Geun-hye administration’s plan to allow the deployment of a controversial U.S. antimissile system.

Following the North’s continuing nuclear and missile provocations, South Korea and the United States agreed that a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery will be deployed in the South.

China and Russia have protested the decision, expressing concern that its powerful radar could be used to spy on their territories.

“Our only bargaining chip with China is Thaad,” said Ahn Cheol-soo, former chairman of the People’s Party, during an interview on Monday. “If China agrees to sanction the North, we should recant the deployment plan. That should be our negotiation strategy.”

Ahn’s remark was a departure from the People’s Party’s adamant opposition to the Thaad deployment plan, as it can be interpreted that the party will not disagree with the deployment if China does not aggressively punish the North.

Rep. Joo Seong-yong, a senior party official, also told reporters on Monday that the party will follow the decision of the National Assembly.

The People’s Party formally expressed its opposition to the Thaad deployment as its party line in July. It has also urged other opposition lawmakers to join its protest. The latest remarks by the top party official, therefore, suggest a change.

Sources in the party said concern grew about reactions to its protests after the North’s fifth nuclear test. “Public opposition to Thaad weakened,” a party official said. “And there was a possibility of a sixth nuclear test. The sense of risk grew inside the party that we may gain nothing by insisting on our protest.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but it sounds like the Korean left is saying that they never did care about people’s health and their protests were all politically driven.

Defense chief meets residents near THAAD candidate site https://t.co/Dr7ridqujr

— Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) September 1, 2016

For anyone that owns Lotte Group stock, now may be the time to start dumping it:

Lotte Group has been dragged into the controversy over where Korea deploys the controversial U.S. anti-missile battery, after its golf course in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, emerged as the most probable alternative site.

Korea’s fifth-largest family-controlled conglomerate fears its duty free stores, hotels and other businesses that cater to Chinese visitors will be adversely affected if the government decides to install a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery at the Lotte Skyhill Country Club (CC), north of downtown Seongju. Lotte officials are also worried that its businesses in China will suffer.

Lotte is unlikely to get fair value for the golf course because the government offers compensation based on the property’s appraisal value, which is much lower than the market price.

However, the conglomerate is not in a position to publicly oppose the possible THAAD deployment to one of its most profitable golf clubs because its Chairman, Shin Dong-bin, his family members and heads of Lotte units are under investigation on allegations of breach of trust, embezzlement and other irregularities. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see the Chinese reaction if Lotte is forced to sell the golf resort.

This author seems to believe in leftist conspiracy theories to explain why the US wants to deploy the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea:

The deployment of the United States missile defense system, or the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), in Korea is currently a hot potato. It even gave a stir among Asian countries such as China and perhaps in the rest of the world too — some people believe it might trigger the next devastating World War III.

When Korean novelist Kim Jin-myung published his book “THAAD” in August 2014, the advanced U.S. defense system was not well-known to the public. It was only two months after then-USFK Commander Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti first raised the necessity to deploy THAAD in Korea against North Korea’s military aggression, or to be particular, against a nuclear attack.

But the author seems to have been well aware of the indispensable position of the U.S. to allocate the radar machine in Korea to complete its Military Defense (MD) system as Kim’s fiction charts the conspiracy that has to be based on a thorough understanding of the U.S. Army’s military scheme.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if it has ever crossed the minds of the Korean left that maybe the US wants the system to better protect its servicemembers and South Korean citizens from increased missile capabilities from North Korea?