China has strongly protested the decision, claiming that the system, especially its powerful “X-band” radar, can be used against it, despite repeated assurances from the USA and the South that the system is purely defensive and designed only to cope with North Korean threats.
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After unusual group defection and four-month sequestering, group released individually, Ministry says The 13 North Koreans (one manager, 12 waitresses) who were part of a group defection in April from the Ryukyung Restaurant in Ningbo, China, were recently released from the Defector Protection Center (formerly the Joint Interrogation Center) following their interrogation by the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the Hankyoreh confirmed on August 16.
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.
People from Seongju county hold banners to protest against the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), during a rally in Seoul, capital of South Korea, on July 21, 2016.
North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and followed up with a satellite launch and a string of test launches of missiles in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
The United States and South Korea have agreed to base the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in Seoul.
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Gen. Li Zuocheng, left, and US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, center, review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Bayi Building in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016.
The general’s visit is also surrounded by tensions following an global arbitration panel’s ruling last month that China could not claim islands in the disputed South China Sea, which have rival claims by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. China angrily rejected the verdict and has vowed to continue developing man-made islands that the USA says have exacerbated tensions in the strategically crucial region.
Milley “reaffirmed the USA commitment to adhere to global rules and standards and encouraged the Chinese to do the same as a way to reduce regional tensions”.
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The visit is “aimed at understanding climate change issues as well as underscoring Taiwan’s sovereignty”, the official Central News Agency quoted Taiwanese officials as saying. Japan last week called in the Chinese ambassador to protest over a large increase in the number of Chinese coast guard and fishing ships operating in waters surrounding the islands, called Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China. High-level United States army official’s visit to South Korea would come amid heightened tensions surrounding Seoul and Washington’s abrupt decision last month to house one THAAD batteryby the end of next year. He then is to travel to another key US ally and Chinese rival, Japan.
