hankyoreh

the Lotte Skyhill Country Club in Seongju County

The Ministry of National Defense and Lotte have effectively agreed upon a plan in which the Lotte golf course in Seongju would be provided as a site for deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in exchange for military-owned land in Namyangju, it was learned on Nov. 13.

The agreement means plans for deployment by 2017 are gaining momentum even amid the ongoing scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye and confidante Choi Sun-sil.

“Discussions are in the finishing stages for a land swap plan where the Ministry of National Defense deploys THAAD at Lotte’s golf course in Seongju in exchange for providing Lotte with military-owned land in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province,” a senior government official said on Nov. 13.

“My understanding is that Lotte is awaiting approval by its board of directors,” the official added.

The ministry has been seeking out plans for a land swap arrangement that would not involve spending state finances in order to avoid the inevitable National Assembly budget review if it were to purchase the Lotte golf course in Seongju.

A number of military-owned sites are known to be present in Namyangju, including the Army’s 71st, 73rd, and 75th mobilization reserve divisions. The ministry is reportedly planning to acquire 1.78 million square meters of land through the swap, including the 960,000 square meters of the Lotte golf course in Seongju and 820,000 square meters of surrounding forests and fields.

If the ministry and Lotte do reach an official agreement on the plan, a land price calculation by an appraisal agency is expected to take place immediately, with all acquisition procedures to be finished within the year. Once the procedures are complete, the ministry would give the Lotte golf course in Seongju to US Forces Korea as a THAAD deployment site as per Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) regulations.

Military officials’ decision to speed up the THAAD deployment appears to be an attempt at a hurried response to increased uncertainty amid the Park/Choi scandal and the recent election of Donald Trump as US President. In a talk on Nov. 4, Combined Forces Command commander Vincent Brooks indicated a proactive stance on the issue, saying the USFK THAAD deployment would “come in the next eight to ten months.”

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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