But China objected to the system out of fear that its powerful radar will enable the US, South Korea, and Japan to use it against the Chinese.
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Park said in a statement that China’s criticisms are “out of place” and that Beijing is not in a position to blame Seoul for heightening tensions in the region.
UNITED NATIONS The United Nations Security Council has been unable to condemn the launch of a missile by North Korea that landed near Japan because China wanted the statement to oppose the planned deployment of a US anti-missile defence system in South Korea.
For example, several events aimed at Chinese tourists as part of tours within South Korea have been called off; there are reports of tourists switching itineraries to other countries; South Korean prformers have had their events cancelled in China; and there are reported delays to the normal clearance times and procedures related to South Korean exports to China being at the country’s main ports.
China’s Foreign Ministry has also slammed the THAAD deployment as “harmful” to China’s security and to the stability and de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula – the expression that may signal a downgrading of Beijing-Seoul ties and possible improvement in Beijing-Pyongyang relations.
Seoungju residents protesting against the government’s decision on deploying a U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense unit in Seongju, South Korea.
Uncoordinated military intervention by China, South Korea or the United States in the event of North Korea’s collapse could lead to war between the US and China, a USA research institute said.
While that’s a fraction of South Korea’s total exports to China, which totaled $145.3 billion in 2014, with South Korea enjoying a hefty surplus, the entertainment sector can have a heavy knock-on impact on the popularity of other South Korean goods, especially cosmetics, fashion, food, consumer electronics, smartphones and cars, as well as tourism. “(She) is well aware of the real direction of the THAAD anti-missile system”, the editorial said.
The report refers to the second case that was originally reported by South Korean news agency Yonhap in April, when a colonel had defected to Seoul past year. “It marks a watershed moment in the relations between China and South Korea”.
“China has its own limits to where it can go”, said Lee Tai-hwan, director of the China studies centre at the Sejong Institute near Seoul.
Kim Dong-yup, an analyst at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in South Korea, said the bickering over Thaad “is happiness to North Korea”.
But increased North Korean aggression, including four nuclear tests, anxious South Korea.
According to the BBC, the accused South Korean man, Kim Ki-jong, attacked the Japanese ambassador to South Korea in 2010 and later tried to erect a memorial altar in the heart of Seoul to the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. “And this defensive weapon system is neither designed nor capable of threatening China’s security interests”.
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China’s immediate diplomatic focus is ensuring the success of the upcoming Group of Twenty (G20) meeting that China will host in Hangzhou, generating fears in South Korea that the brunt of Chinese retaliation will follow that global meeting.
