The move comes after North Korea threatened a physical response against the USA and South Korean THAAD missile defence system. Plans to deploy the missile system have been criticized by North Korea, China and Russian Federation.
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Washington and Seoul announced the agreement on Friday but said a joint working group was still deciding where THAAD would be stationed.
In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency Monday, the North Korean military’s artillery bureau said it would turn Seoul into “a sea of flames” once a decision on the location was issued.
“The deployment of THAAD is recognition of North Korea’s increasingly belligerent behavior and will intensify our defense capabilities in South Korea to protect the tens of thousands of Americans who serve in the region as well as our allies”, Gardner said. Because THAAD missiles have a max range of 200 km, a battery stationed on Seongsan could intercept incoming threats targeting USA bases in Pyeongtaek and Gunsan.
US and South Korean officials say THAAD only targets North Korea, but China and Russian Federation suspect it could also help USA radars detect their own missiles.
South Korea now has PAC-2 and PAC-3 Patriot missiles in Seoul to counter North Korea’s ballistic missiles.
Deployment of THAAD has proven deeply controversial in South Korea, stimulating criticism from Seongju citizens who argue its operation will have negative health consequences for those in the vicinity, due to its electromagnetic frequency output.
Also on Monday, the North cut all communications with the United States through its office at the UN – a rare channel of communications between the two nations that do not have official diplomatic ties.
“We hope the European Union and others will follow, by linking sanctions to human rights violations and not only to the security issues and nuclear proliferation, and by carefully targeting sanctions on key leaders”.
On Monday, the North’s state media said it told the United States it will terminate contact through a U.N. channel in NY that allowed diplomats to communicate. It will pay for the Thaad system. North Korea is now keeping captive US student Otto Warmbier, accused of taking down a communist poster.
United States administration officials announced last week that the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jon Un, is the ultimately responsible for North Korea’s notorious abuses of human rights.
North Korean state media KCNA said: “As the United States will not accept our demand for the immediate withdrawal of the sanctions measure, we will be taking corresponding actions in steps”. “We. have notified the United States that we would completely end all official communications through NY”, it said.
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North Korea blames the USA exclusively for the current strife between the United States, North Korea, and South Korea. “The U.S.is whole to blame for the ensuing unpleasant things happening in the bilateral times”, wrote KCNA.
