U.S. officials are proceeding with the deployment of a missile defense battery in South Korea despite the impeachment and removal of the South Korean president Park Geun-hye.
“Leaders change over time, that’s not new,” Navy. Capt. Jeff Davis, Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Friday. “This is something that is needed militarily. That agreement was reached and we remain committed to delivering on it.”
Park’s removal was finalized by the South Korean Constitutional Court following bribery and corruption charges involving a close aide. China, which has long opposed the deployment of the defense system, wasted no time in urging the post-Park government to reverse course now that she is gone.
“We will not comment on the impeachment case…,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Friday. “As for her decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense [THAAD] system, China has expressed definite opposition.”
South Korea’s military has been on high-alert due to a series of North Korean missile tests and launches, as well as the assassination of dictator Kim Jong Un’s half-brother through the use of a chemical weapon. That might ensure the deployment of the THAAD, regardless of the outcome of the South Korean election.
“It is probable that a progressive candidate will win the presidency, raising the potential for strains in the South Korean-U.S. relationship,” the Heritage Foundation’s Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow for Northeast Asia, told the Washington Examiner. “It is unlikely that any candidate will reverse the THAAD decision since a majority of South Koreans favor the deployment. North Korea’s continued belligerent behavior have caused the progressive candidates to tack to the center — to differing degrees — on foreign policy and security issues.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is traveling to China, South Korea and Japan to meet with regional governments about how best to confront the heightened threat.
“We are very concerned with the escalation of North Korea’s actions, the continuous testing and augmenting of its weapons program is of great concern and it’s getting to the point where we do need to look at other alternatives,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on Monday. “We’re going to talk to our allies and partners in the region to try to generate a new approach to North Korea.”
In the meantime, the U.S. military expects the South Korean government to stand by the current THAAD agreement. “We made an agreement with the Republic of Korea that this was a capability in order to defend the Republic of Korea and its allies and was based as a direct result of North Korea’s continued development of these capabilities, their continued provocations and bellicose statements of intending to use them,” Davis said.
