The Korea Herald said selecting Seongju as the deployment site for the THAAD system could lead to criticism that the location leaves the metropolis around Seoul, home to 20 million people, vulnerable.
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Taking their protest further, approximately two hundred people later separated from the main group to ride buses to Seoul, where by late afternoon local media said they were protesting outside a Convention Center owned by the South Korean ministry of defense.
According to the statement, North Korea’s military, which has “sufficient latest offensive strike means”, will take “more merciless and powerful successive corresponding measures against the United States keen to ignite a war by deploying THAAD”.
The move to deploy THAAD also drew a swift and sharp protest from China. Seoul and Washington say the system targets only North Korea. Russian Federation had also opposed the deployment.
During his announcement on Wednesday, Deputy Defense Minister Ryu said assessments have been indicating THAAD will create no negative health and environmental impacts in the region and that the safety of the residents would not be in any jeopardy.
However, South Korea’s defense ministry says that most of the ballistic missiles targeting the capital are Scud missiles that fly at an altitude of less than 40 kilometers, and that THAAD is only able to intercept missiles that fly at higher than 40 kilometers.
A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile is launched from a THAAD battery.
This missile defense system in South Korea would be effective against a number of missiles in North Korea’s arsenal, including short-range scuds and medium range Nodong and Musudan missiles.
South Korea and the USA selected the location for a new missile defense system, a move that will escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula and raise the ire of neighbor China.
Eumseong County Mayor Lee Pil-yong (fourth from the left) and county residents shout slogans at a park, opposing the THAAD missile defense system being deployed to Eumseong, July 11.
This could delay release of the US citizens, giving North Korea one of its last bits of leverage in negotiations with the US, said T. Kumar, Amnesty International USA’s international advocacy director.
South Korean media also reported the choice was made to place the system as far as possible from China, which objects to the THAAD deployment because it fears the USA could use the system’s radar to track its own military moves.
FILE – A U.S. Patriot missile is seen at the Osan U.S. Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Feb. 13, 2016. Beijing claims that the system can be used against it on concerns that the powerful X-band radar that comes with THAAD could spy on China’s military. Russian Federation too has raised objections claiming that U.S.is trying to flex military muscle in the region.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang repeated China’s opposition to THAAD.
It said a team of senior South Korean officials and THAAD experts traveled to the town of 40,000 to ease opponents’ ire.
Two Americans are now detained in Pyongyang. North Korea is now keeping captive USA student Otto Warmbier, accused of taking down a communist poster.
South Korea and the US first started their negotiations on the deployment in February in a bid to install a multi-layered air defense system against North Korea’s emerging missile capabilities.
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Many worry that the global tribunal’s ruling could send South Korea into a hot spot where it could be squeezed by the two powers.
