The latest launches happened after US and South Korea’s statement of the plan regarding the deployment of THAAD, an anti-missile system that would be placed in the town of Seongju, south-east of South Korea.
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The widely-condemned tests – personally monitored by Kim Jong-Un – were aimed at simulating possible attacks on South Korean ports and airfields hosting USA military targets, the North’s state-run media said.
Cheong said South Korea’s security would be secured without THAAD as the U.S.-South Korea alliance has provided military assets enough to deter the DPRK’s nuclear and missile threats, calling for improved relations with the DPRK and re-negotiations on the denuclearized peninsula as a fundamental solution.
Tensions have already been running high between North Korea which carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and the US and South Korea which have stepped up their military exercises in the region.
“If we become divided over the inevitable choice to protect the nation and people’s lives, and there is further confusion, we could wind up going in the direction that North Korea may want”, she added.
NO to the deployment of THAAD system. That is why we strongly oppose the THAAD deployment. Seongju lies 296 km southeast of Seoul. “We are here to express the people’s anger living in Seongju”, Protest organiser Seok Hyeon-Cheol said. When Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn visited the area to explain and apologize last Friday, he was pelted with eggs and doused with water.
The South Korean president reminded the officials the North recently test-fired three ballistic missiles and that Pyongyang hasn’t been shy about engaging in provocations. On Wednesday it announced those launches were simulations of an attack on the site where the battery will be placed.
Protesters, many residents of the farming region of Seongju, fear the system’s powerful radar will be harmful to their health as well as the environment and by default the economy despite assurances by US and South Korean officials that it is safe. The government has denied there are any safety risks.
Some 4,000 police officers were mobilized, forming police lines around the area to assure that the rally didn’t stray from the permitted zone. A third one, which would be a medium-range Rodong missile, was sacked about an hour later. Temperatures exceeded 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
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Similarly during a discussion at the Brookings Institution on identifying emerging security threats, CIA Director John Brennan said that the deployment of THAAD to the region was an “obligation” on behalf of the US.
