Korea, US make THAAD deployment official

Korea, US make THAAD deployment official. July. 09, 2016 07:24. by 주성하기자, 베이징=구자룡특파원 zsh75@donga.com,bonhong@donga.com.

As the Korean government has made a decision to deploy the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system, neighbor countries are showing different responses. While China and Russia are strongly against it, Japan is hailing acclamations. North Korea could be calculating possible gains and losses from this decision at the moment.

China is most strongly protesting the THAAD deployment. Upon the THAAD deployment became official, China's Foreign Ministry made an instant statement opposing the decision, and summoned the Korean Ambassador and the American Ambassador to remonstrate about it. China's interpretation of this situation is that the U.S. is openly trying to take an advantage of the North Korean nuclear issue to build a military system right in front of China to keep the country under the U.S. radar. "How China is taking this situation is more serious than most people think it is. The THAAD deployment will give Washington a huge strategic advantage in the Asian region," said Kim Heung-gyu, the director of Ajou University China Policy Research Institute. China sees the THAAD system as a defensive measure for the U.S. bases in the Asian-Pacific area in case of a war breaks out between the U.S. and China.

Russia also shares the same position as China saying that the THAAD deployment directly undermines Russia's strategic security. In the summit held in Beijing last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia President Vladimir Putin made a statement, saying, "We oppose the U.S. building a new missile defense system in Northeast Asia by using dealing with North Korea as an excuse."