Six opposition lawmakers leave for China to discuss THAAD

A group of lawmakers from the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) left for China on Monday for talks with Chinese officials and scholars over the planned deployment of an advanced U.S. antimissile system to South Korea, a major thorn in the relations between Seoul and Beijing.

The six first-term MPK lawmakers brushed off intense opposition from the presidential office, ruling party and even those within their own party ranks who warned their visit would worsen the division among South Koreans over the deployment plan and only help strengthen China's position against it.

"We are going to visit (China) to only contribute even a little to improving chilled diplomatic relations between South Korea and China," Rep. Kim Young-ho, who leads the group, told reporters before departing for China.

Since Seoul and Washington announced their plan last month to install a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on the peninsula by end-2017, Beijing and its state-run media have ramped up their criticism of it, repeating that THAAD will undermine regional stability and China's security interests.

During their stay in Beijing, the lawmakers plan to attend meetings with professors at Peking University, South Korean Ambassador to China Kim Jang-soo, South Korean residents and South Korean press correspondents in China.

Those close to the lawmakers said that they would use their visit to China to stress that economic and political relations between the two countries should not be marred by the THAAD issue, and call on Chinese media to refrain from reports that whip up anti-South Korea sentiment.

Dismissing mounting criticism over their visit to Beijing, the lawmakers have portrayed the visit as part of "parliamentarian diplomacy." They said that their visit to China is a "diplomatic promise" that cannot be called off.

Two of the lawmakers ― Reps. Kim and Park Jeung ― have previously studied in China, while the other lawmakers have little or no relations or expertise regarding Chinese security and foreign policy issues.

On Monday, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae reiterated it is concerned that their visit to China will bolster Beijing's stance over THAAD and exacerbate the growing division among South Koreans.

"As you know, national interests should be given top priority (in handling the THAAD issue)," presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk told reporters.

President Park Geun-hye has repeatedly defended the decision to install THAAD in the southern county of Seongju as a "self-defense" measure to better cope with North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats. (Yonhap)