U.S. Moves Controversial Missile Defense To South Korea

U.S. missile launchers and other equipment needed to set up a controversial missile defense system have arrived in South Korea, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said Tuesday, a day after North Korea test-launched four ballistic missiles into the ocean near Japan. 

The plans to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, within this year have angered not only North Korea, but also China and Russia, which see the system’s powerful radars as a security threat. 

Washington and Seoul say the system is defensive and not meant to be a threat to Beijing or Moscow.  

The U.S. military said in a statement that THAAD is meant to intercept and destroy short and medium range ballistic missiles during the last part of their flights.

The U.S. Pacific Command described the THAAD system as “a strictly defensive capability” that “poses no threat to other countries in the region.” It said in a statement that the deployment “contributes to a layered missile defense system” and enhances defense against missile threats from North Korea.  

“Continued provocative actions by North Korea, to include yesterday’s launch of multiple missiles, only confirm the prudence of our alliance decision last year to deploy THAAD to South Korea,” Adm. Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in the statement. 

Some South Korean liberal presidential candidates have said that the security benefits of having THAAD would be curtailed by worsened relations with neighbors China and Russia. 

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the deployment is bringing the situation in the Korean peninsula into a stalemate, Russian news agency Interfax said, according to the Reuters news agency.

China said it will take unspecified measures against a U.S. missile system being deployed in S. Korea, and warned that Washington and Seoul will bear the consequences.  A Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a regular briefing Tuesday that China “firmly opposes” the deployment of the missile defense system. 

China’s condemnation of South Korean plans to deploy THAAD has triggered protests against South Korean retail giant, Lotte, which agreed to provide one of its golf courses in southern South Korea as the site of THAAD. The South Korean government also raised worries about a reported ban on Chinese tour groups visiting the country. 

An official from South Korea’s Defense Ministry, who didn’t want to be named, citing office rules, said that the equipment that arrived in South Korea included launchers, but didn’t confirm how many. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.