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Acting president should resolve THAAD site issue in person

Acting president should resolve THAAD site issue in person

Posted January. 18, 2017 07:10,   

Updated January. 18, 2017 07:19

한국어

As China is taking blatant retaliatory measures against South Korea's plan to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, the Lotte Group is hesitating over a land swap deal with the Ministry of National Defense. The ministry planned to complete the exchange of military properties in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province and Lotte's golf course in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province by the end of January and deploy the U.S. missile defense system within this year. However, Lotte seems to have changed its mind due to China's retaliation over the THAAD deployment and the political circles' calls for reconsidering the deployment.

It is one thing after another to deploy the missile defense system. The Park Geun-hye administration agreed with the United States on the deployment as part of a sovereign level response to the North Korea's escalating nuclear and missile threats. After strong protests by local residents in Seongju against the deployment and politicians' divisive arguments about the plan, China is threatening South Korea with economic retaliation. Now, Lotte is balking at a land deal for the deployment. Why is it so hard to have one defense system deployed in this country?

As Lotte has many businesses in China, it would suffer from severe blows if the group is labeled as an anti-China entity. In November 2016, the Chinese government conducted sudden tax, safety and hygiene inspections at Lotte's establishments in China, causing speculation that the moves were related with the group's planned land deal with Seoul's defense ministry. It is a violation of the world order for free trade to counter a security issue with economic retaliation.

The state comes before business. Lotte agreed on the land deal at a time when it was in a crisis over a feud in the controlling family and its chairman was being investigated on charges of unfair business practices and tax evasion. It is not the attitude of a socially responsible business to renege on its promise with the government because the president's impeachment could lead to the launch of a new administration that could be reluctant about the THAAD deployment. As Lotte owes a lot to the government and the Korean people, including the permits to build the new Lotte World and open profitable duty-free shops, it is obliged to show a positive attitude toward the national security issue.

The government is mainly responsible for the complicated situation. It sowed the seed of national division over the THAAD deployment plan by publicly announcing what should have been kept as a military secret. It also set a negative precedent by announcing Seongju as the THAAD site, only to relocate the site after local residents' protests. Lotte must have felt that it had been arm-twisted by the government to concede its golf course. It is necessary for Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn to roll up his sleeves to prevent a fatal precedent from being made in which the government reverses its decision on a national security issue.