By Zhang Han, Han Wen
According to Yonhap's report on September 19, the ROK government has completed the procedures for providing an area in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province to the US for deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. The provision of 400,000m2 of land this time, after the first round of provision in 2017, drives the total area provided by ROK for deploying the US THAAD system to 730,000m2. Experts say Seoul’s push to deploy THAAD may very likely drag the China-ROK relationship into an abyss again and that the deployment doesn’t suit any party’s interests.
The ROK media mentioned that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has expressed its wish to normalize the THAAD base from day one, and has accelerated the formation of an environmental impact assessment committee and the guarantee of vehicles and transportation, which was long postponed by the previous administration. After the Office of the President announced in early August that work around the deployment of THAAD would be normalized by the end of the month, the work that has been suspended for years was soon resumed and pushed forward faster.
The ROK government already transported engineering equipment and vehicles into the THAAD base on the 4th and 14th of September, which ROK’s Kyunghyang Shinmun said were strongly opposed by some residents and anti-THAAD groups, saying that the police were trampling upon the citizens for the US military and that normalizing the THAAD was illegal. Kang Hyun-wook, a spokesperson for a coalition of several anti-THAAD groups criticized the ROK government for aggravating the conflict.
Zhan Debin, director of the Center for Korean Peninsula Studies (CKPS), Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, said despite the protests by local residents and the objection from China, the Yoon Seok-Youl administration seems adamant about normalizing the deployment of THAAD.
In an earlier interview with ROK media, Chinese ambassador to ROK Xing Haiming said that of all American allies, the ROK is geographically closest to China. If the US deploys THAAD in it, the system’s x-band radar, with a detection distance of 2000-3000km, will be able to reach deep into the Chinese mainland, which not only worries the Chinese people but also harms China’s strategic interests. The Chinese side will not sit idle on that.
The spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in August that China has always respected the sovereignty of the ROK and understands its security concerns. However, since the US’ deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system in the ROK undermines China’s strategic security, the Chinese side cannot just look the other way.
According to an analyst who asked for anonymity, the normalization of the THAAD base will indicate the ROK’s neglect of China’s security concerns and will seriously impede the healthy development of bilateral relations.
Editor’s note: Originally published on huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
