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Qiu Guohong

On Feb. 24, South Korea’s Blue House and Foreign Ministry both objected to remarks made the previous day by Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Qiu Guohong made to Kim Jong-in, interim leader of the Minjoo Party of Korea. During their meeting, Qiu was quoted as saying that China-South Korea relations could be destroyed because of the single issue of the THAAD missile defense system.

The South Korean government summoned Qiu to the Foreign Ministry to issue a complaint. The move is expected to make an impression, since it is rare for Seoul to summon the Chinese ambassador, though it sometimes summons officials from the Japanese Embassy.

The last time that Seoul summoned the Chinese ambassador was in Dec. 2011. Then Ambassador Zhang Xinsen was asked to visit South Korea’s Foreign Minister after a member of the South Korean Coast Guard was killed in a tussle with Chinese fishing boats.

On Feb. 7, the Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned South Korean Ambassador to China Kim Jang-soo to protest South Korea’s announcement that it would begin deliberating with the US about deploying the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system with US forces in South Korea, meaning that both Beijing and Seoul have summoned each other‘s ambassadors over the issue of deploying THAAD.

On Wednesday afternoon, South Korea’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hong-gyun summoned Qiu to the Foreign Ministry office at the Central Government Complex in Seoul to discuss what Qiu had said about THAAD on the previous day and to ask why he had made those remarks, a Ministry official said.

“Qiu expressed his understanding of the sensitive nature of this issue, and he communicated his intention to work even harder as the Chinese Ambassador to South Korea for the continuing development of relations between South Korea and China,” the official said.

“The deployment of THAAD with US forces in Korea would be a measure taken in self-defense in response to the increasing threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles. As such, this is an issue that will be decided according to the national security and the national interest, and China needs to be aware of this,” Blue House spokesperson Jeong Yeon-guk said in a conference with reporters on Wednesday morning.

By Lee Je-hun and Choi Hye-jeong, staff reporters

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]