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South Korea advances missile defence system, risking clash with China

South Korea saw widespread protests against THAAD when it was installed in 2017 - SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
South Korea saw widespread protests against THAAD when it was installed in 2017 - SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

A US-made missile defence system in South Korea moved one step closer to completion this week, in a controversial move that signals the Westward shift of the country’s new president and may lead to tensions with China.

Seoul this week said it had granted additional land to Washington for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system, despite clear warnings from China that fully deploying the equipment would be seen as a security threat to Beijing.

A report in China’s Global Times this week said the issue once again risked “dragging China-South Korea relations into the abyss.”

When the system was first installed in 2017, Beijing imposed punishing economic sanctions that left Korean businesses reeling, arguing that THAAD could be used to spy on its military facilities, something it has continued to maintain.

The United States and South Korea have denied China’s charges, insisting THAAD, which intercepts incoming ballistic missiles, is solely a defensive measure against an increasingly hostile North.

Park Jin, South Korean foreign minister, has stressed it is a matter of South Korea’s security-related sovereignty, and President Yoon Suk Yeol has insisted to Beijing that it should not become a “hurdle” to bilateral relations.

But it has been interpreted as a clear sign that he is shifting towards Washington and for President Yoon, a newcomer on the global stage, straddling the interests of the US and China - South Korea’s largest trading partner - could prove a political minefield.

At home, further sanctions retaliation from Beijing could deepen the country’s economic woes amid rising inflation and a falling Won, potentially plunging Mr Yoon’s already low ratings to new depths.

“He is trying to thread the needle here between the US and China. He is trying to deploy THAAD without suffering any consequences, particularly economically with China,” said Ankit Panda, an Asia-Pacific expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It’s not clear how exactly it is going to play out.”

Elements of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interception system arrive in Seongju, South Korea - Yao Qilin/Xinhua News Agency / eyevine
Elements of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interception system arrive in Seongju, South Korea - Yao Qilin/Xinhua News Agency / eyevine

Among the most vocal opponents of Thaad’s deployment are the feisty pensioners of Korea’s agricultural Seongju county, some 130 miles from Seoul, where the anti-missile system is based.

In the tiny hamlet of Nogok-ri, elderly women socialising in the village hall became animated, whacking fly swats on the wooden floor, as they voiced their concerns that the military facility was not only causing land prices to fall but would make them a prime target in the event of a conflict.

“We will be the first ones to die!” they said.

Those fears are shared in the nearby village of Soseong-ri. Once a quiet haven of garlic farms, roosters and persimmon trees, it is now the hub of daily 6am road blockades where residents stage Won Buddhist prayer ceremonies on the main supply route into the Thaad base to halt incoming equipment.

The government is picking up the pace on an environmental impact assessment that has so far stalled THAAD’s full operation, and protests have increased in recent weeks after the defence ministry surprised villagers with a nighttime delivery of construction materials.

Banners line the access road to the gate of the base with slogans denouncing the US military.

Riot police remove South Korean protesters blocking the road to oppose the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system - YONHAP/AFP/Getty Images
Riot police remove South Korean protesters blocking the road to oppose the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system - YONHAP/AFP/Getty Images

“The villagers here do not want war,” said Lim Soonboon, 68, who has lived in Soseong-ri since moving there as a newlywed 45 years ago.

She said she did not fear North Korea, but worried that her village could be targeted in a conflict between China and the United States.

“Why are we being sacrificed in the fight between two superpowers? Don’t drag us into it,” she said.

It’s a view that is shared widely among the demonstrators.

“The THAAD defence system is not for the security of Korea but a US play against China,” said Kang Hyun-wook, the Won Buddhism cleric who leads the prayer blockades.

Beijing has stoked these fears with its own protests over THAAD.

China was particularly sensitive over the issue as tensions rose across the Taiwan Strait,  said Chung Jae-hung, a security expert at Korea’s Sejong Institute. Beijing opposed any military assets that could support the intervention of US or Korean forces in a war, he added.

Anti-THAAD protests in Seoul in 2017 - SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
Anti-THAAD protests in Seoul in 2017 - SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

But Mr Panda said China was being “disingenuous” as there was no basis to its main objections over the system’s radar being networked into the broader US homeland missile defence architecture.

THAAD would work in “terminal mode,” limiting its radar capabilities, and its north-facing deployment meant interceptors would be unable to stop missiles striking Taiwan, which was “too far from the Peninsula,” he explained.

“The missile threat from North Korea is self-evident,” he said, adding that the unprecedented uptick in Pyongyang’s missile tests this year would likely persuade President Yoon to proceed with the deployment of additional THAAD units.

“China’s economic and diplomatic coercion against THAAD violates international trade norms and the spirit of normal bilateral relations with South Korea,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

“The original thinking in Beijing may have been that if it held the line against THAAD, it could tip the balance of influence in Asia in its favour. But this backfired as more countries are coordinating Indo-Pacific strategies to resist Chinese coercion.”