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Residents opposed to the placement of four additional THAAD launchers clash with police in front of the Soseong-ri Village Hall in Seongju County

The South Korean government’s decision on Sept. 6 to go ahead with the additional deployment of four THAAD launchers means the antimissile system’s deployment with US Force is effectively set in stone.

While the additional deployment appears motivated by a worsening security environment with North Korea’s series of ballistic missile launches and sixth nuclear test, critics also say it means the Moon Jae-in administration has compromised the same procedural legitimacy it has so consistently stressed.

Since taking office in May, the Moon administration has faced pressure at home and overseas to deploy the THAAD system. In South Korea, conservatives in particular have led the call for a fast deployment, while the US has turned the screws by stressing that the deployment decision was a “official agreement” between the two sides.

North Korea has continued ratcheting up tensions with a series of provocations since Moon took office. The situation has become consistently awkward for the Moon administration, which had sought to delay the THAAD deployment over procedural issues, including failure to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA). Initially, it announced on July 28 that it would make a final decision on the deployment issue after carrying out a general EIA. Just a few hours later, North Korea carried out a second test-launch of its Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM); Moon ordered the immediate deployment of four additional launchers the following day.

The Ministry of National Defense has stressed that the four launchers’ deployment is “temporary.” On Sept. 6, it reiterated its stance that the final decision on whether to deploy THAAD would be “made after a general environmental impact assessment that is expected to take between 10 and 15 months.” But with the temporary deployment of the four launchers, the ministry’s current plan is to begin reinforcement work on the Seongju site. The necessary equipment and materials for the construction are to be delivered to the base on Sept. 6 along with the four “temporarily deployed” THAAD launchers.

The ministry’s legal basis for the construction was the small-scale EIA completed on Sept. 4. But it’s also a contradictory stance from the Moon administration, which previously criticized the small-scale EIA on the Seongju base as “a legal workaround.” The administration earlier criticized predecessor Park Geun-hye’s administration for “skirting the law” by conducting a small-scale EIA to avoid a more difficult regular one, splitting the 700,000 square meters of the total site granted into 320,000 square meter pieces.

The ministry explained that the construction was a “temporary reinforcement” effort for equipment previously brought into the base in a surprise delivery last April, including two THAAD launchers, radar, generator trucks, and a battery control center. But in its details, it is no different from the construction of a permanent THAAD base, including the building of concrete structures for the THAAD launchers, internal roads, and electrical systems.

The additional deployment of the four THAAD launchers will leave the Seongju base with one complete THAAD battery. Additional construction will provide it with all the facilities to support that battery’s permanent deployment - transforming it for all intents and purposes into a permanent THAAD base. The general EIA is likelier than ever to end up a mere formality meant to justify the THAAD battery’s deployment at Seongju after the fact.

China immediately protested, demanding that the deployment process be halted immediately and all related equipment dismantled. In a regular briefing the same day, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang stressed that “the THAAD deployment in the ROK will in no way address the security concerns of the relevant countries and only severely undermine regional strategic balance and jeopardize the strategic security interests of China and other regional countries. Moreover, it will exacerbate the tensions and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula and complicate the Korean Peninsula issue.”

“The Chinese side strongly urges the US and the ROK to value the security interests and concerns of China and other regional countries,” he added.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer and Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent

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