Lockheed Martin implies behind-the-scene negotiation on THADD deployment

Lockheed Martin implies behind-the-scene negotiation on THADD deployment. February. 01, 2016 07:27. by 워싱턴=이승헌 특파원ddr@donga.com.

Having kept silent on the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) deployment on the Korean Peninsula in October 2015, Lockheed Martin Corp. neither confirmed nor denied on the matter Sunday local time by saying that Washington and Seoul would soon give us the decision on the matter. The company seems to have decided that they don’t have to deny the matter any longer as the deployment issue has come to the fore due to series of provocative actions by North Korea.

“The final decision of the THAAD deployment on the Korean Peninsula is the matter that only Washington and Seoul could give final confirmation on,” Cheryl Amerine, director of strategic communications at Lockheed Martin, responded when the Dong-A Ilbo asked about progress on the matter on Sunday.

The company stated the THAAD deployment on the region in October 2015, and reversed its statement in one day when the two governments issued a denial. “Discussion of THAAD deployment was taking place between Seoul and the Pentagon,” Lockheed Martin Vice President Mike Trotsky told the press conference in Washington.

The following day, however, Jennifer Whitlow, senior vice president for communications at Lockheed Martin, issued a statement, "We are not aware of any discussions between the U.S. and Korea regarding THAAD." Back then, Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Amerine said that she could not mention anything about the deployment.

Diplomats of Korea and the U.S. reckon that Lockheed Martin, the world largest munitions company, has made closest look at the progress on the THAAD deployment for many years. Unlike its announcement four months ago, the company has implied that there might have been a behind-the-scene negations between the two nations by neither confirming nor denying the fact.

In Washington, the deployment of THAAD has become a public issue. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Korea and the U.S. would announce related matter as early as the first week of February but removed the timing of the announcement when the report caused controversy in Korea. Still, there’s no development witnessed in the U.S. that refutes the intent of its report. “I personally support the idea of putting a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) unit in the South, such a deployment won't be a unilateral decision,” U.S. Pacific Command leader Adm. Harry B. Harris, Jr. said at an interview on Sunday.

“Now the THAAD deployment is a matter of when and how,” said diplomatic sources in Washington.