Defense deputy minister suspended over THAAD controversy

By Jun Ji-hye

President Moon Jae-in suspended the deputy defense minister for policy, Monday, for directing ministry officials to omit details of the controversial deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in the ministry’s recent briefings to the new administration.

Moon’s chief press secretary Yoon Young-chan said at a press briefing that the President’s order came after the presidential office found out that Deputy Minister for Policy Wee Seung-ho told his subordinates to delete references to the arrival of four additional THAAD launchers in the ministry’s reports to the government launched early last month.

Moon decided to suspend Wee at a meeting with his senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, during which Cho Kuk, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, reported the results of his office’s investigation into the incident.

“We confirmed that the person who ordered the omission was Wee,” Yoon said. “He ordered officials to ambiguously state the deployment process in the reports after deleting the information.”

The Ministry of National Defense did not report the arrival of the four additional launchers in its policy briefings to the presidential advisory committee as well as to National Security Office (NSO) head, Chung Eui-yong, May 25 and 26, respectively, according to Yoon.

On Moon’s order, Cheong Wa Dae investigated the incident and confirmed May 31 that the ministry had “intentionally” omitted details on the arrival. This raised suspicions that what some described as a “covert” process might have been aimed at evading an assessment of their environmental impact.

Yoon said the draft made by the ministry’s working-level officials before Moon’s election clearly stated six launchers had been brought in and four of them were being kept at a U.S. military base. But after the draft went through a review by higher-level officials, this information was deleted.

Wee testified that he did this because the deployment process had to be kept secret in accordance with an agreement with the U.S. armed forces, Yoon said.

“But the secrecy only applies to the media, not to the President who is commander-in-chief of the nation’s military,” Yoon noted.

He added that the ministry had reported the arrival of the launchers to the former Park Geun-hye government, but not to the Moon administration.

Yoon added the outcome of the investigation may have cleared Defense Minister Han Min-koo and former NSO chief Kim Kwan-jin of suspicions they concealed the delivery, saying nothing suggested that they ordered the omission.

The presidential office suspects the defense ministry also attempted to avoid an extensive environmental survey by dividing the 700,000 square meters of land it provided to the U.S. Forces Korea for the deployment.

The law stipulates that installing military facilities in land greater than 330,000 square meters requires a complete environmental survey. Yoon said the ministry decided to provide the U.S. military with 320,000 square meter of land first, and the rest afterward.

Land smaller than 330,000 square meters is subject to only a small, informal environmental assessment.

“An additional investigation will follow to verify who made such a decision and why”, Yoon said, adding that Moon ordered the ministry to sincerely adhere to due procedure.

Minister Han told reporters later in the day that the ministry will come up with ways of guaranteeing procedural legitimacy for the environmental survey in accordance with the order.

Meanwhile, Cheong Wa Dae added that it explained the results of its investigation regarding the THAAD deployment to the U.S. government, and Washington said it fully “understood.”