Russia, China reaffirm opposition to THAAD deployment in S. Korea

By Park Si-soo

The foreign ministers of China and Russia reaffiemd their countries’ oppositon to the possible deployment of an advanced American missile-defense system in South Korea.

Amid escalating tensions over North Korea's nuclear arsenal, South Korea and the United States last week began formal talks on deploying the missile-defense system, named Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a news conference in Moscow on Friday after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that the THAAD system would “inflict direct harm to the strategic security interests of China and Russia.”

Lavrov said deploying the system would be an overreaction.

“The plans, which the U.S. has been nursing together with the Republic of Korea, exceed any conceivable threats that may come from North Korea, even taking Pyongyang's current actions into account,” he said.