US missile launchers and other equipment needed to set up a controversial missile defense system have arrived in South Korea, the US and South Korean militaries said yesterday, a day after North Korea test-launched four ballistic missiles into the ocean near Japan.
The plans to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) this year have angered not only North Korea, but also China and Russia, which see the system’s powerful radars as a security threat.
China responded quickly, saying it will take “necessary measures” to protect itself, and warning that the US and South Korea should be prepared to bear the consequences.
Photo: AP
Washington and Seoul say the system is defensive and not meant to be a threat to Beijing or Moscow. The US military said in a statement that THAAD can intercept and destroy short and medium-range ballistic missiles during the last part of their flights.
“Continued provocative actions by North Korea, to include yesterday’s launch of multiple missiles, only confirm the prudence of our alliance decision last year to deploy THAAD to South Korea,” Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, said in the statement.
Some South Korean liberal presidential candidates have said that the security benefits of having THAAD would be curtailed by worsened relations with China and Russia.
Photo: EPA / US Forces Korea
“China firmly opposes the deployment of THAAD,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) said at a regular briefing. “We will definitely be taking necessary measures to safeguard our own security interest. All consequences entailed from that will be borne by the US and [South Korea]. We once again strongly urge the relevant sides to stop the process of deployment and refrain from going further down that wrong path.”
China’s Global Times, a nationalist tabloid published by the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship People’s Daily, yesterday criticized North Korea over the missiles.
A South Korean Ministry of Defense official, who did not want to be named, citing office rules, said that the equipment that arrived in South Korea included launchers, but did not confirm how many.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, North Korean diplomats faced a chorus of condemnation for the latest ballistic missile tests, but they declared that ongoing joint US-South Korea military exercises were aimed at conducting a “pre-emptive nuclear attack” against Pyongyang.
During the stormy 90-minute session, envoys from more than a dozen countries condemned Pyongyang’s test-firing.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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