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| South Korean President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with Matt Pottinger, senior director for East Asia at U.S. National Security Council, in a brief meeting at his presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on May 16, 2017. / Yonhap |
By Lee Han-soo
President Moon Jae-in's national security aide has reaffirmed Moon's position on the need for National Assembly ratification of the deployment of an American missile defense system in a meeting with Matt Pottinger, the East Asia director on the White House's National Security Council.
"Problems have been raised regarding the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system," Chung Eui-yong, head of Moon's security and diplomatic task force, said during the Tuesday meeting. "This has to be talked through in the National Assembly."
Pottinger and the U.S. delegation did not comment on Chung's remarks during the meeting, according to presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.
But Pottinger, after a meeting with Lee Jung-gyu, the assistant vice minister for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the THAAD deployment was a "settled matter" and was agreed on by South Korea and the U.S.
During his presidential campaign, Moon expressed negative views on the former government's push for the THAAD deployment.
"President Moon has repeatedly addressed that the deployment of the THAAD lacked democratic justification," a security and diplomatic task force official said. "The matter needs to be ratified by the National Assembly and only afterward can be discussed with our counterpart with the consent of the public."
Pottinger, head of the U.S. delegation to South Korea, arrived in Seoul on Monday. He visited Cheong Wa Dae and delivered President Donald Trump's congratulations to Moon.
He is the first senior White House official to visit South Korea since Moon was inaugurated last week.
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