South Korean civic groups urged the government Thursday to reject any U.S. attempt to deploy an advanced missile defense system on South Korean soil, saying it could destroy peace on the peninsula and hurt Seoul’s ties with Beijing.
South Korea insists that the issue has never come up for consideration, but Washington has hinted it would deploy a THAAD battery in South Korea, which is home to about 28,500 American troops.
“The government should decline to deploy THAAD, which would destroy peace in Northeast Asia, including the Korean Peninsula and hurt relations between South Korea and China,” some 120 civic groups said in a statement read during a news conference.
Some 30 members of the groups, including the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea, attended the conference held on a road near the entrance to the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.
“The military and economic feuds to be created due to the deployment of THAAD on the peninsula would damage all national interests and goals, such as inter-Korean peace and reunification,”
they said. “President Park Geun-hye should clearly reject any pressure from the U.S. and declare her position against the deployment.”
U.S. officials say THAAD, if deployed in South Korea, would combat North Korea’s growing missile and nuclear threats, but China is strongly opposed to the plan, seeing it as a direct threat to its national security. (Yonhap)
