Dozens of people yesterday were injured in clashes between South Korean protesters and police as the US military added more launchers to the high-tech missile-defense system it installed in a southern town to better cope with North Korean threats.
Seoul has hardened its stance against Pyongyang after its torrent of weapons tests, the latest a detonation on Sunday of what North Korea said was a thermonuclear weapon built for missiles capable of reaching the US mainland.
The clashes came as South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe met in Russia and repeated their calls for stronger punishment of North Korea over its nuclear ambitions, including denying the nation oil supplies.
Photo: Reuters
The demand contradicted the stance of their host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has dismissed sanctions as a solution.
Putin says he believes US President Donald Trump’s administration is willing to defuse tensions over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Its sixth nuclear test on Sunday prompted the US to speak about a “military response” and South Korea to conduct major military exercises.
Speaking at an economic forum in Russia’s eastern port of Vladivostok, Putin said he believes the Trump administration is “willing to resolve the situation.”
Putin said there are “many reasonable people in the current administration,” who are experienced and who have dealt with similar crises.
Putin called on all North Korea’s neighbors to show restraint, indicating the bellicose rhetoric and the military drills are only “playing into their hands.”
Moon and Abe in their meeting agreed to cooperate on seeking tougher UN sanctions against North Korea, and pledged to strengthen efforts to persuade Beijing and Moscow into cutting off oil supplies to the North, said Yoon Young-chan, Moon’s chief press secretary.
Putin expressed concern that cutting off oil supplies would hurt regular North Koreans, Yoon said.
“We should not give in to emotions and push Pyongyang into a corner,” Putin said in a news conference after meeting with Moon.
The Russian leader met with Abe later in the day.
In South Korea, thousands of police officers in riot gear swarmed about 400 protesters who had been occupying a road leading to the site where the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is installed in the rural town of Seongju.
Six police officers and 32 other people were injured, none seriously, in the clashes, said a fire department official in Seongju, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.
Several US military vehicles, including trucks carrying payloads covered in black sheets that appeared to be launchers, had been seen heading toward the site.
A THAAD battery normally consists of six launchers capable of firing up to 48 interceptor missiles, but only two have been operational.
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense could not immediately confirm when the four launchers added yesterday would be operationally capable.
Washington and Seoul began deploying THAAD before a conservative South Korean government was ousted in March in a corruption scandal.
Moon took office in May calling for diplomacy with Pyongyang, but the escalation in weapons tests has been North Korea’s only response.
Moon temporarily halted the THAAD installation for environmental reviews to ease residents’ concerns, but after North Korea’s two test-launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, he allowed more launchers to be set up before the reviews were completed.
South Korean officials say THAAD strengthens the nation’s missile defenses, which previously relied on Patriot-based systems, and would deter North Korea, which has missiles that can be fired from road-mobile launchers or submarines.
They also said the health rumors that have spurred local concerns about the system’s powerful radar component are groundless.
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