Lotte, defense ministry sign land swap deal for THHAD
A boy and a girl hold signs asking Lotte Group not to provide a site for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery in a rally against the deployment in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. The defense ministry and Lotte signed a land swap deal to deploy the U.S. missile defense unit on a company-owned golf course in the county. / Yonhap
China threatens to take retaliatory measures against anti-missile unit
By Jun Ji-hye
The Ministry of National Defense and Lotte Group signed a land swap deal Tuesday to enable the United States Forces Korea (USFK) to set up a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery on a golf course in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, owned by the company.
In exchange, Lotte will receive a piece of military-owned land in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province.
The two sides will exchange properties to complete the THAAD deployment “within this year,” the ministry said in a statement.
Seoul and Washington are likely to rush to deploy the system as early as May before South Korea holds a possible early presidential election, according to sources. If the Constitutional Court upholds the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye before March 13 as predicted, the nation must elect a new president within 60 days.
The signing came a day after Lotte International, the owner of the Lotte Sky Hill Country Club, approved the land provision for THAAD at a board meeting.
The deal solved the thorny issue of securing a site for the battery, which has been one of the biggest challenges in the deployment, allowing Seoul and Washington to speed up all the processes to finish the THAAD installation in the coming months.
Protest from China, Seongju residents
But at the same time, concerns are being raised that China’s retaliation against South Korea and the conglomerate will intensify further. The ministry also still needs to resolve local residents’ protests over potential health and environmental risks of the battery deployment.
Beijing has explicitly opposed the THAAD installation on South Korean soil, claiming that the system could hurt its strategic security interests, although Seoul and Washington said the battery is designed only to defend against North Korean missiles.
Following the signing, China’s retaliatory actions are expected to be more explicit.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang was quoted by the country’s official Xinhua news agency, Monday, as saying, “China expresses firm opposition and strong dissatisfaction.” China will take “necessary measures” to safeguard its security interests, and the U.S. and South Korea will have to bear all the consequences, he added.
Local residents living near the THAAD site are also showing no signs of taking a step back in their protests, saying they will mobilize every possible means, including legal action, to block the deployment.
Seoul and Washington announced the deployment decision last July amid evolving threats from the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
A ministry official said on condition of anonymity, “As the land swap deal has been signed, we will make every effort to deploy THAAD at the earliest possible date.”
Under the deal, the ministry will receive 1.48 square kilometers of the golf course in Seongju in exchange for giving the firm 67,000 square meters of land in Namyangju near Seoul. The size of the land to be exchanged was decided after an appraisal of the value of the two sites conducted at the end of last year.
Preparations for the deployment include the land provision to the USFK in accordance with the Status of Forces Agreement, the construction planning, the evaluation of the THAAD battery’s environmental impact and the actual deployment of the unit.
The golf club is already equipped with core infrastructure such as electricity and water supply, sewage disposal and access roads, so it will not take much time to build additional infrastructure facilities, the ministry said.
One of the four THAAD batteries currently stationed in Texas could be brought to Seongju, according to sources.
One official said evaluation of the environmental impact is expected to be completed in May or June, noting that most parts of the processes for the deployment will proceed simultaneously to reduce completion time.
Based on this, speculation is being raised that the deployment would be done by no later than July.
The official said, “It is difficult for us to clearly say when the deployment will be completed as there are some variables.”
The ministry originally planned to sign the deal with Lotte in January, but this was delayed due to the company’s apparent hesitation over concerns about possible economic retaliation from China against its operations in that country.
The group, operating a total of 120 business sites in China, has already experienced various difficulties, including an order to halt its theme park construction in Shenyang as well as unusual tax audits and surprise fire safety inspections.