The move to introduce the US anti-missile system to South Korea has sparked angry protests from Seongju inhabitants who fear the health effects of electromagnetic waves from its radar, as well as a stern rebuke from China.
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He criticized North Korea as “the only country in the world defying the worldwide movement towards responsibility” by continuing to develop its missile program.
South Korea’s decision to deploy an advanced United States anti-missile defence system does not threaten China’s security, a senior US administration official said on Tuesday (July 26) at the end of a visit to China by US National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken and South Korea’s deputy national security adviser, Cho Tae-yong, “will discuss ways to enhance global resolve in holding North Korea accountable for its actions, including its destabilizing violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions”, the State Department said.
“North Korean leader Kim Jong-un personally ordered a retaliation against South Koreans (residing in or traveling to those countries) in response to the April abduction”, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Yonhap News Agency.
The minister, Ri Yong Ho, said, however, that the United States had destroyed the possibility of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
The US insists that the system is meant to protect South Korea from potential attacks from North Korea.
South Korea concentrated its diplomatic capabilities on sending a strong message against the North’s possible provocations in the future, while maintaining a solid framework for sanctions after the North’s fourth nuclear test and repeated test-firing of long-range missiles.
But North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho defended Pyongyang’s need to possess nuclear weapons throughout the meeting.
Despite the latest attempt by the worldwide community to push it towards bankruptcy, North Korea has continued to carry out ballistic missile tests, and made it clear that it intends to continue nuclear testing.
Seoul said the anti-missile system is needed to counter growing threats from the North.
“Together we are determined.to make absolutely certain that DPRK (North Korea) understands that there are real consequences for these actions”, Kerry said.
The North, meanwhile, said it would take “physical action” – a threat followed up with another missile test which it described as a simulated strike on the South.
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“We believe our deportation is part of the Park administration’s attempt to isolate Seongju residents and prevent peace activists from internationalizing the fight to oppose THAAD”, Lee told The Diplomat.
