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| Angry residents of Seongju County in North Gyeongsang Province try to enter the Ministry of National Defense building in Yongsan, Seoul, Wednesday, demanding a meeting with Defense Minister Han Min-koo over the ministry's selection of the county as the location for a THAAD anti-missile battery. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
Seoul remains vulnerable to North Korean missiles
By Kang Seung-woo
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| Yoo Jeh-seung, deputy minister for policy at the Ministry of National Defense, announces that Seongju County in North Gyeongsang Province has been selected as the location for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
However, the missile shield will leave Seoul and its surrounding areas vulnerable to North Korean missiles because its maximum intercept range is about 200 kilometers. Seongju is located some 210 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
Because of this, some analysts are raising questions about the necessity of having the system on South Korean soil — some even claim that the main mission of the battery is to protect U.S. military bases here.
Announcing the location, the South Korean military said the THAAD battery will be operational from late next year.
The military said it will deploy more ground-to-air missiles near Seoul to defend the capital from North Korean missiles.
It remains to be seen if North Korea will make any military provocations against the South and the United States, as it threatened Monday to make "merciless" retaliatory strikes against them from the moment the location for THAAD was selected.
If THAAD is deployed in the county, the system will not be capable of defending Seoul and its surrounding areas, which are the most populous in the nation, from North Korea's missile threats.
This is a sharp contrast to the government's repeated assurance that THAAD will protect the security of South Korea and its people from Pyongyang's growing threats. In addition, the ROK-U.S. joint statement issued on Friday — when they announced the agreement to deploy THAAD — also confirmed that the THAAD deployment was a defensive measure to ensure the security of the ROK and its people and to protect the alliance's military forces from North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile threats.
According to the military, the THAAD battery to be deployed in Seongju County will be funded by the United States, so its main mission here is to protect American troops and their bases rather than Seoul and its surrounding areas.
If deployed in Seongju County, the system can protect key U.S. facilities in Pyeongtaek, Geyonggi Province; Daegu; and Gunsan, North Jeolla Province.
Pyeongtaek will be home to the new headquarters for the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), while the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, the logistics provider of the USFK, is stationed in Daegu. The U.S. Air Force has a large presence in Gunsan, 274km southwest of the capital. It is also believed to shield South Korea's Gyeryongdae military headquarters in South Chungcheong Province.
"The primary goal of deploying THAAD here is to protect U.S. troops and its equipment. In that respect, do we need to compromise our diplomatic relations with Beijing, who bought 26 percent of all Korean exports last year by allowing the THAAD deployment?"said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute.
Since the official statement to deploy THAAD on Friday, China has strongly expressed its displeasure with the decision, urging the South Korean government to scrap the plan. As a result, there are escalating concerns that the country may press the South by way of economic retaliation. China is South Korea's largest trading partner.
In response to THAAD's limited coverage, the defense ministry said it plans to beef up the air defense system in Seoul and its surrounding areas with Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 low-altitude missiles against the North's ballistic missiles.
South Korea is speeding up the development of the indigenous Korea Air and Missile Defense system and under the plan, the military plans to upgrade its PAC-2 missiles to PAC-3 starting this year and complete the move by 2020.
There is also speculation that South Korea may consider purchasing its own THAAD system or allow the USFK to bring another THAAD battery here if North Korea's missile threats grow — although the defense ministry says there is no plan to additionally acquire it yet.
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