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

The South Korean Ministry of National Defense asked the US to provide documentation on terminal high-altitude area defense (THAAD) and that it was provided information on the subject, an official with the US Defense Department said on June 4. The official also said that South Korea is considering the possibility of introducing this system.

The remarks contradict a statement made by the South Korean Ministry of National Defense the previous day that it is not considering bringing THAAD to the Korean peninsula and that it has not discussed this with the US. This is feeding suspicions that the South Korean government is secretly taking steps to acquire THAAD.

The South Korean government requested the information to learn about the capabilities and costs of THAAD, said Peppino DeBiaso, head of missile-defense policy at the Pentagon, in an interview with Bloomberg. He explained that the information that the South Korean government had requested had to do with Lockheed Martin’s THAAD, its new ground-to-air interceptor the Patriot PAC-3, and Raytheon’s Standard Missile.

DeBiaso said that the US had been in deliberations with the South Korean government for several years to improve South Korea’s missile defense capacity, noting that, at the current moment, Seoul has not yet made a decision. He also said that the US is continuing to review the subject with Korean officials in order to help Korea decide.

In a position paper issued on June 4, the Ministry of National Defense said it had never deliberated with the US about a US missile defense system, not to mention taking part in planning, preparing, or developing a US missile defense system. Analysts suspect that the stance adopted by the Ministry of National Defense is intended to assuage Chinese fears about South Korean participation in US missile defense, even as South Korea and the US continue to discuss the option of deploying THAAD.

Another noteworthy development is the fact that the Pentagon has made a number of public comments recently about the possibility of deploying THAAD on the Korean peninsula. Some observers believe that this is connected with deliberation over delaying the transfer of wartime operational control of South Korean forces, called OPCON, which is supposed to take place at the end of 2015. After deciding to review the option of delaying the OPCON transfer, US and Korean military authorities are currently discussing the conditions and the timing of the transfer.

“American officials see improved missile-defense systems as a necessary improvement before the US hands over command of South Korea’s wartime defenses,” Bloomberg reported.

In response to the developments in the US, a senior official from South Korea’s MND said, “I understand that we asked the US for material about THAAD and the Patriot 3 in the interest of collecting basic information. These requests were not made with purchasing these missile systems in mind.”

“We have a team of researchers who are trying to learn about the US’s advanced missile defense system to help us design a Korean missile defense system. That’s what they were talking about,” another senior MND South Korean official said regarding the question of deliberations with the US, on condition of anonymity.

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