South Korea could join US missile defense plan

Posted on : 2012-04-16 15:18 KST Modified on : 2012-04-16 15:18 KST
Tests by Pyongyang could push Seoul closer into American defense system

By Lee Soon-hyuk, staff writer  
North Korea’s recent rocket launch could lead South Korea to join in US-led missile defense plans.
The US has been working since the 1990s to build missile defense systems to defend its territory from North Korean and Iranian long-range missiles and protect its troops stationed overseas from short- and mid-range missiles. The plan involves four systems: early warning, upper-tier defense interception, lower-tier defense interception, and command and control.
The South Korean government has tactfully refused repeated requests from Washington to participate in its MD plans, citing factors such as opposition in Beijing and a potential political controversy at home.
Instead, Seoul has been working on its own Korea Air and Missile Defense system, with a target completion date of 2015. The plan is for a lower-tier defense system for intercepting ballistic missiles at an altitude of up to 100 km. To this end, plans are under way to introduce Israeli early warning Green Pine radar within the year, at a cost of 100 billion won (about US$88 million), and to develop an Air and Missile Defense-Cell (AMD-Cell).
The Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a Ministry of National Defense think tank, signed a Sept. 2010 agreement with the Missile Defense Agency in the US Department of Defense to begin joint research on a KAMD to respond to the North Korean ballistic missile threat. Many analysts suggested this was done with the idea of future incorporation into MD plans, though the Ministry of National Defense denied this.
But with North Korea carrying out another rocket launch this year after its previous launches in 1998, 2006, and 2009, observers are predicting a greater likelihood that arguments in favor of participating in the US-led MD system will gain traction in the military. A greater controversy over the missile threat would also play up the role of a MD plan in intercepting missiles and guaranteeing security.
“Taking part in the US missile defense plan would cost a tremendous amount of money, around 10 trillion won just for building the initial system,” said Kim Jong-dae, editor-in-chief of the military affairs journal Defense 21+. “But there is no guarantee of successful interception, and we would also have to face the prospect of our relationship with Beijing going downhill.”
 
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