hankyoreh

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent, and Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

The US Department of Defense is considering the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea, the Wall Street Journal reported on May 27.

THAAD is one of the key weapons systems in the US’s missile defense system.

The newspaper quoted Defense Department officials as saying the department was making a new push for stronger cooperation in Asia in response to the North Korean missile threat.

It also reported that the US had “conducted a site survey in South Korea for possible location” for a THAAD system, but that “no final decisions have been made.”

Two possible approaches mentioned in the article included deploying THAAD temporarily for USFK and having Seoul purchase it, or encouraging South Korea to buy the system right away.

The THAAD system costs US$950 million per battery.

THAAD is a weapons system for intercepting medium- and short-range missiles. Its deployment in South Korea would mean Seoul being brought into the US-Japan missile defense framework.

If the system is deployed in South Korea, a major outcry is expected from China, which sees the purpose of integrating the South Korean, US, and Japanese systems as a check against its own military. Speaking at a regular briefing on May 28, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said it was “not beneficial for regional stability and strategic balance” for a missile defense system to be deployed on the Korean Peninsula.

“We hope the US gives enough consideration to the rational concerns of the countries involved in this region,” he added.

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense has said that the Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) system is being built for terminal lower-tier defense - altitudes of 40 km or less - for short-range missiles, given the short depths involved on the peninsula. This means it has no plans for buying THAAD, which covers altitudes from 40 to 150 km, it has explained.

But the US is expected to turn up the pressure on Seoul at this weekend’s Asia Security Summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

The WSJ article said missile defense cooperation between the US, South Korea, and Japan was “high on the agenda” as the countries meet during the summit, with “top officials from Lockheed Martin” also scheduled to attend. Lockheed is the defense company developing the THAAD system.

The article also reported US Joint Chief of Staff vice chairman James Winnefeld as planning to say at a May 28 seminar in Washington that the US “will continue to emphasize the importance of developing regional ballistic missile defense systems.”

“This is a very politically sensitive topic for several of our regional allies, but progress in this area would only increase our confidence in the face of persistent North Korean provocation,” Winnefeld added, according to advance excerpts from his remarks.

According to the newspaper, Winnefeld and other Defense Department officials gave cutbacks in US military spending as another reason for the growing importance of missile defense cooperation with allies.

But the South Korean government may have other plans.

“We certainly think it would help defend the peninsula if we had THAAD deployed with USFK, but right now South Korea doesn’t have any plans to buy this weapons system,” said a Ministry of National Defense source on condition of anonymity. “As far as I know, we haven’t discussed the deployment with the US either.”

“It’s a mid-tier weapon system for terminal phase interception, so it really wouldn’t have anything to do with us if it were deployed with USFK,” the source continued. “This does not mean we would be joining the US missile defense system.”

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