By Jun Ji-hye
The second largest opposition People’s Party is in a heated debate over whether to drop its opposition to the planned deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery on South Korean soil.
The party adopted its official stance against THAAD in July last year soon after Seoul and Washington announced their decision to deploy the system this year to better deter nuclear and missile threats from North Korea. At the time, the party cited the negative impact on Seoul-Beijing relations and strong protest from local residents over concerns about detrimental health and environmental effects.
The move to change such a stance comes as some members, including former co-chair and leading presidential hopeful Ahn Cheol-soo said the situation has changed. They cited the North’s latest missile launch, which showed significant progress in its missile technology, as well as the apparent assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in Malaysia last week.
“South Korea and the United States have already concluded an agreement on the deployment,” Ahn said.
Those who want to change the party’s stance apparently share the need for gaining support from conservative and centrist voters amid the possibility that the presidential election, originally scheduled for December, could take place within the first half of the year once the Constitutional Court rules on President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment. Under the Constitution, the nation should elect a new president within 60 days after the incumbent’s departure.
But other senior members, such as four-term lawmaker Chung Dong-young and six-term Chun Jung-bae, disagreed with the move to reverse the stance out of concerns that the party could be criticized for flip-flopping.
“If we overturn the stance due to the murder of Kim Jong-nam, we will become a laughing stock to others,” Chung said.
Chun also said, “There is no need to change our official stance simply because Kim Jong-nam was killed.”
Floor leader Joo Seung-yong gathered the opinions of all lawmakers of the party over the weekend ahead of a party meeting Tuesday, but only found a gap between the two sides.
“There are differing opinions. We need to make a final decision through a comprehensive discussion at the meeting,” Joo said. “Presidential candidates see the issue differently as well. So, I kind of feel uncomfortable dealing with the issue as whichever decision the party makes, it would appear to support a certain presidential hopeful.”
The THAAD battery is designed to intercept incoming North Korean ballistic missiles during their final phase of flight, but China is strongly protesting this decision based on the belief that the system would escalate regional military tensions and undermine its own security interests.
The governments of South Korea and the United States have maintained a stance to push for the deployment as planned despite China’s protest, citing evolving North Korean threats.
In the latest in a series of military provocations, the reclusive state fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile propelled by a solid-fuel engine using a caterpillar-tracked, self-propelled missile launching vehicle on Feb. 12.