{"id":1988,"date":"2017-04-26T14:24:34","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T14:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/?p=1988"},"modified":"2017-04-26T14:24:34","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T14:24:34","slug":"u-s-starts-deploying-thaad-missile-battery-in-south-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/2017\/04\/26\/u-s-starts-deploying-thaad-missile-battery-in-south-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S STARTS DEPLOYING THAAD MISSILE BATTERY IN SOUTH KOREA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sourced : Washington Post<\/p>\n

By Anna Fifield<\/p>\n

The United States military started installing a controversial anti-missile defense system in South Korea overnight Tuesday, triggering protests and sparking criticism that it was rushing to get the battery in place before the likely election of a president who opposes it.<\/p>\n

The sudden and unannounced move came only six days after U.S. Forces Korea secured the land to deploy the system, known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD.<\/p>\n

Moon Jae-in, a liberal candidate who has a strong lead in the polls ahead of the May 9 presidential election, has promised to review South Korea\u2019s decision to host the anti-missile battery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sense in Seoul that THAAD deployment has been rushed based on the timetable of South Korea\u2019s presidential election, rather than North Korea\u2019s threats,\u201d said John Delury, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo some extent, the acceleration of THAAD deployment has \u2018worked,\u2019 limiting the next South Korean leader\u2019s room for maneuver,\u201d Delury said. \u201cBut there\u2019s the danger of a backlash among the South Korean public feeling like a pawn in the game of \u2018America First.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Forces Korea did not make any statement about the deployment and did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why the installation was started in the dead of night.<\/p>\n

But South Korea\u2019s Ministry of National Defense said that South Korea and the United States had been working \u201cto secure the swift operational capability of the THAAD system against North Korea\u2019s nuclear and missile threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Korea\u2019s military plans to secure full capability of the THAAD system operation within the year,\u201d the ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Moon, the Democratic party\u2019s candidate for president, criticized the sudden moves overnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoon Jae-in has been consistent in his position on the THAAD deployment: that it must be decided by the next administration after enough public discussion and by national consensus,\u201d Park Kwang-on said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny deployment that completely ignores appropriate processes must be suspended now and the final decision should be made after consultation between South Korea and the U.S.,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Moon has a solid 10-point lead over his closest rival in the most recent polls and political scientists expect him to be South Korea\u2019s next president, barring any dramatic developments.<\/p>\n

After equivocating for years, the South Korean government \u2014 led by then-President Park Geun-hye \u2014 decided last July to allow the deployment of the system to guard against the North Korean threat.<\/p>\n

Each THAAD battery includes at least six truck-mounted launchers that carry up to eight missiles each. They are designed to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles like the ones that North Korea has been launching at a steady clip over the past year.<\/p>\n

North Korea, itself, has bolstered the case for the system, with dozens of missile launches over the last year, all of which have South Korea easily within range.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s moves to install the battery come at a particularly tense time on the peninsula, with the United States moving warships to the region and warning that \u201call options are on the table,\u201d while North Korea is vowing to counter any American strike and conducting large-scale military drills Tuesday.<\/p>\n

But Beijing has protested vehemently against the deployment, apparently concerned that the system\u2019s powerful radar could be used to keep tabs on China, and has imposed painful economic boycotts on South Korean companies in response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deployment of THAAD in South Korea will destroy the strategic balance in the region and bring about a further increase in tensions,\u201d Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China\u2019s Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Beijing Wednesday. \u201cThe Chinese side strongly urges the U.S. and South Korea to cancel the deployment and withdraw the equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents in the Seongju area, where the battery will be deployed, have also been protesting, worried that the system\u2019s presence will make them a target for North Korea\u2019s missiles.<\/p>\n

According to local reports, six trailers carrying the X-band radar, mobile launchers and other parts of the system were seen entering the site about midnight.<\/p>\n

A group of residents protested against the move and tried to stop the equipment from being taken onto the site, clashing with police, the Yonhap news agency reported from Seongju, in the southeast of South Korea.<\/p>\n

They waved placards saying \u201cNo THAAD, No War\u201d and \u201cHey, U.S.! Are you friends or occupying troops?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice let THAAD equipment pass through [protesters] by repressing them,\u201d Kang Hyun-wook, a religious leader who was leading the protest, told Yonhap. \u201cThe THAAD deployment is illegal and should be nullified.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sourced : Washington Post By Anna Fifield The United States military started installing a controversial anti-missile defense system in South Korea overnight Tuesday, triggering protests and sparking criticism that it was rushing to get the battery in place before the likely election of a president who opposes it. The sudden and unannounced move came only… Continue reading U.S STARTS DEPLOYING THAAD MISSILE BATTERY IN SOUTH KOREA<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[639,855],"class_list":["post-1988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conflict","tag-south-korea","tag-thaad","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1990,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions\/1990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}