Although the decision to deploy THAAD was a move to squeeze the increasingly isolated North Korea China worries the system’s radar will be able to track its military capabilities.
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China and South Korea might undergo a brief period of “cold war” over the THAAD deployment, but it is unlikely that it will fundamentally affect the strategic framework in East Asia, especially because both of them are facing imminent nuclear threats from North Korea.
The missiles, if acquired, would replace the SM-2 missiles now fielded by South Korea’s Aegis destroyers and improve their range from about 100 miles to more than 300 miles, significantly extending their layers of missile defense.
As many as 908 people joined in the head-shaving part of the protest, organizers said.
However, protesters continued their show of defiance to the decision, voicing concerns over the perceived cancer risk – owing to the system’s powerful radar – and the THAAD system becoming a wartime target should an enemy choose to strike. “We can not protest any bigger”.
South Korean companies must focus more on individual Chinese consumers rather than Chinese producers to keep their exports growing as Chinese consumers’ spending has almost quadrupled in just 10 years and will continue to grow, a report said Thursday.
The casting vote-exercising People’s Party also regarded Park’s speech as her routine attitude of non-communications, saying the unilateral THAAD deployment decision resulted in rising diplomatic security threats in the region and disorders and splits among South Korean people.
“THAAD should not be deployed at all, not just in Seongju, but anywhere in South Korea”, said Yoo Ji-Won, a 63-year-old farmer.
North Korea on Wednesday labelled South Korean President Park Geun-Hye a “psychopath” after she made a speech slamming Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions and defending the deployment of a United States anti-missile system.
News of the SM-3s comes in tandem with a deployment of U.S. Army Terminal High Altitude Aerial Defense systems to mainland South Korea.
Yet some opposition lawmakers in Seoul have sided with THAAD skeptics and called for the deployment to be scrapped.
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The ROK Navy now fields three Sejong the Great-class guided missile destroyers (DDG-991) with the same radar and launch system as the U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class BMD guided missile destroyers.
