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Lotte Skyhill Country Club in Seongju County

As expected, South Korea’s Defense Ministry confirmed on Sep. 30 that the golf course at the Lotte Skyhill Country Club in Seongju County would be the replacement site for deploying the THAAD missile defense system.

Initially, there were three sites that the Defense Ministry considered as places to deploy THAAD instead of the Seongsan Air Defense Base in Seongju County. The three sites were Dalma Mountain in Chojeon Township, (where the golf course is located); Yeomsokbong Mountain in Geumsu Township; and Kkachi Mountain in Suryun Township, all in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province.

The ministry said there were six selection criteria for the THAAD site: operational availability, safety, infrastructure and THAAD operation, guarding and security, the time and cost of construction and the period required to prepare for deployment. The Ministry even put together an advisory committee composed of experts in the areas of the environment, electromagnetic waves and civil engineering that were recommended by the local government. But despite these activities, the Defense Ministry had been favoring the Seongju golf course from the very beginning.

The primary reason for that is the time required to deploy THAAD. “Our goal is to deploy [THAAD] by the end of the next year, but we will try to deploy it even sooner than that,” said Ryu Je-seung, chief of policy for the Defense Ministry, during a press briefing on July 13.

During a hearing before the US House of Representatives on Sep. 27, Daniel Russel, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said that the US intended to accelerate the deployment of THAAD because of the increased frequency of North Korea’s missile tests.

Since Kkachi Mountain and Yeomsokbong Mountain do not have any infrastructure (such as roads or electricity), construction at the base would take a long time. In addition to leveling the ground and building various military facilities, this infrastructure would have to be built from scratch as well. On the other hand, the Seongju golf course already has this infrastructure. Furthermore, the grounds of the golf course are generally flat, which means that time can be saved on leveling the ground.

“A base could not be built in time at Kkachi Mountain and Yeomsokbong Mountain because of the need for large-scale civil engineering and the construction of new infrastructure that would also harm the forest. But Dalma Mountain (where the Seongju golf course is located) would require hardly any construction at all since it already has the infrastructure,” the Defense Ministry said in a document that it submitted to politicians from the ruling and opposition parties.

In regard to the other selection criteria, however, there were reportedly no major differences among the three sites. “All three of the sites are similar in regard to the THAAD system’s defensive range against North Korean missiles, and there would be no public health or safety concerns either,” the Ministry said.

Few residents of Seongju live near the golf course, which is 680 meters above sea level. Nevertheless, there is likely to be sharp opposition from the residents of Gimcheon, which is close to the golf course. Small farming villages with a population of more than 2,100 people are scattered within a 5.5 km radius of the golf course, and Gimcheon Innovation City, with a population of over 14,000, is 7 km away.

Also located in the vicinity is the birthplace of Ven. Jeongsan, the second master of Won Buddhism, which is a sacred site for the religion. As a result, opposition from Won Buddhism is also expected to be a factor affecting the deployment.

The Defense Ministry is planning to start taking steps to acquire the golf course area. After that, it is expected to hold the negotiations that are required to grant the area to the US military according to the procedures outlined by Status of Forces Agreement.

The Ministry expects that these procedures will take approximately one month. After these administrative procedures are completed, work will presumably begin on the base design, facility construction and THAAD deployment.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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