Kim Hang-gon has his head shaved during a protest against a plan to deploy an advanced US missile defense system in their neighborhood, in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 21, 2016.
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Many of these abuses, the report noted, are committed in the country’s political prison camps where an estimated 80,000 to 120,000 men, women and children are held.
THAAD has also been the subject of domestic protests, particularly by those living in the rural South Korean county of Seongju where the first battery will be installed.
Park did not specifically refer to the opposition and veiled threats of economic retaliation from China over the U.S. Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system South Korea recently agreed to deploy. “Instead of that we need a peaceful solution”.
Activists believe the plan will force China, Russia and North Korea into closer alliance adding to the already tense atmosphere in the Asia-Pacific as Japan and Seoul, backed by the U.S. and Australia continue to criticise Pyongyang and Beijing.
Objections from civic group activists and opposition lawmakers to the United States missile shield are getting louder at home, while China and Russia have strongly opposed the THAAD deployment as its X-band radar can snoop on Chinese and Russian territories.
In her speech during the 71st-anniversary celebration of South Korea’s Liberation Day on Monday, South Korea President Park Geun-Hye defended her stand to deploy a US -operated missile defense system claiming that the action would protect the Korean people.
“The deployment of THAAD is an act of self defense”, Park stressed in her speech, adding that her priority as president was to “protect the lives of our people from the reckless provocations of the North”. But that does not mean that these demonstrations are not having an impact.
“The more efforts (the North) makes, the deeper the country’s isolation in the worldwide community will be and the bigger its economic problems will be”, she said.
However, at Monday’s Liberation Day celebrations, she insisted there would be no backtracking on deployment.
The government approved the deployment of the THAAD system based on the North’s repeated threats to both the South and the USA of “merciless” and “annihilating” nuclear strikes.
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Residents have expressed opposition to the plan, saying it makes Seongju a potential target.
