'Trump cannot be trusted on THAAD'

U.S. President Donald Trump / AP-Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

A senior White House official, who visited South Korea with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence last week, said it was up to Korea’s next president to decide whether or not to complete the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system here.

Then suddenly, two weeks before the election, the U.S. military started moving parts of the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system to a site in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday.

The operation started at 4 a.m. when no one was expecting it. Hundreds of residents woke up to the news and protested the transportation of the THAAD equipment, but they could not stop it.

The operation again proves how unpredictable U.S. foreign policy is under President Donald Trump and how risky it is to naively believe him or his people, experts say.

“Everything happened when no one was prepared,” said Kim Sung-joo, an honorary professor at Sungkyunkwan University. “The deployment of THAAD will leave few diplomatic options for the next president.”

He also noted the THAAD deployment may cause China to weaken its pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons tests — unless the United States and China made a deal that South Korea is unaware of. Either way, he said South Korea is in trouble.

“The biggest worry is that the THAAD deployment may push China back to North Korea,” Kim said.

“I don’t know how much the South Korean government knew about it beforehand, but its voice on North Korea issues has weakened and has been overlooked by the two powerful countries.”

Tensions between the United States and North Korea have risen to new levels ever since Pyongyang’s failed April 16 missile test. Since then, China has piled more pressure on North Korea and tried to ease the tensions.

The Pentagon said it plans to complete the process as early as possible in cooperation with South Korea’s military.

“North Korea’s unlawful weapons programs represent a clear, grave threat to U.S. national security,” it said to Yonhap. “North Korea openly states that its ballistic missiles are intended to deliver nuclear weapons to strike cities in the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan.”

The decision will be difficult to reverse whoever becomes the next president, said Lee Jun-han, a politics professor at Incheon National University.

“It will be difficult for the next president to reverse the decision because the deployment has already begun unless a majority of people want this, which is very unlikely,” he said.

“What’s clear is it is getting more difficult to predict the U.S. government’s next move.”